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Business-to-business (B2B) payments firm Infibeam Avenues is planning its foray into consumer-facing businesses, including payments and financial services, after acquiring a controlling stake in the news website Rediff.com in August.
The Gandhinagar-based company has applied for a third-party application provider (TPAP) licence with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Following approval from the apex payments body, the company, under the RediffPay brand, will be able to offer users Unified Payments Interface (UPI) services.
“Potentially, Rediff is a pivot for us to get into consumer payments in some ways. If we are able to put a layer on top of RediffPay and then offer all financial products and services, users are likely to adapt,” said Vishal Mehta, chairman and managing director, Infibeam Avenues.
These financial services may include credit and wealth management for customers.
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The application to become a TPAP follows a spree of licences issued by NPCI this year.
In October, NPCI chief Dilip Asbe said 50 new TPAPs were keen on joining the real-time payments rails.
The fintech major, which operates the payment gateway CCAvenue, acquired a controlling stake in Rediff for Rs 50 crore. The digital entity has over 65 million monthly visitors on its website.
Infibeam had earlier stated that the acquisition provides a foundation for the company to cross-sell financial services such as loans, insurance, and investment products.
“After the Rediff acquisition, the cost of getting a customer on board is solved. Further, we can cross-sell other services, including bill payments, where we can make money on every bill paid or mobile recharge. There are opportunities to cross-sell insurance,” said Vishwas Patel, joint managing director, Infibeam Avenues.
The company’s plan to extend bill payments services comes on the back of the Bharat Bill Payments System (BBPS) licence it received for its BillAvenue business. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) awarded the company the licence to function as a Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU) in 2022.
Meanwhile, Mehta explained that the firm is building an enterprise software suite, called RediffOne, which will be made available to CCAvenue merchants.
“We want to come up with an entire enterprise suite, which is a web enterprise resource planning (ERP), web customer relationship management (CRM), and web human resource management system. This can be used by RediffOne and CCAvenue merchants,” Mehta added.
At present, Infibeam has over 10 million clients across digital payments and enterprise software platforms.
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