Infibeam Avenues, India’s first listed AI-powered fintech company, has received the final authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a payment aggregator for its payment gateway brand, CCAvenue. The company announced in a press release that it received the final authorisation on March 4, 2024, following the in-principle approval granted in October 2022.
What is a payment aggregator?
A payment aggregator is an entity that facilitates online payments for ecommerce websites, mobile apps, and merchants. A payment aggregator acts as an intermediary between the customers and the banks or payment service providers. A payment aggregator enables customers to use various payment instruments such as credit cards, debit cards, net banking, wallets, UPI, etc. to make online transactions without the need for merchants to create their own payment interface.
Why is the RBI authorisation important?
The RBI had introduced the payment aggregator framework in March 2020, which mandated that payment gateways need to obtain an aggregator licence to acquire merchants and offer digital payment acceptance solutions. The RBI authorisation ensures that the payment aggregators comply with the regulatory standards and guidelines issued by the central bank. The RBI authorisation also enhances the credibility and trustworthiness of the payment aggregators among the customers and the merchants.
How will Infibeam Avenues benefit from the RBI authorisation?
Vishwas Patel, joint managing director of Infibeam Avenues Ltd, said the company is grateful to the RBI for granting the PA licence. “It’s a testimony of our unwavering commitment to maintaining ever-evolving regulatory standards, and it highlights the significance of our role in advancing the digital payments industry over the last 24 years. The industry already recognises CCAvenue, our flagship payment gateway brand, as the gold standard payments platform, thanks to our rigorous compliance standards for onboarding Indian merchants as well as processing transactions securely at scale,” he said.
Vishal Mehta, chairman and managing director of Infibeam Avenues, said that they are thrilled and thankful to receive the final approval from the RBI. “This PA license along with the BBPOU license is a testament to our commitment to innovation and excellence. We have successfully captured significant market share in the payment gateway and the bill payments space, and we are now poised for even greater expansion in the coming months and will now gear up for accelerated market share growth,” he said.
Infibeam Avenues has more than 10 million merchants on its platform, and this year, the company has already crossed half a million merchants onboarding in H1 FY24, according to the release. The company attributed this growth to the growing relationship with the bank partners and merchants.
Infibeam Avenues posted a gross revenue of Rs 912 crore for the third quarter of FY24, clocking a 2.2X year-over-year (YoY) growth over Rs 414 crore recorded in Q3 FY23. This marked the company’s highest-ever quarterly consolidated gross revenue, said the company. Its net profit grew 64% YoY to Rs 41 crore in the October-December quarter from Rs 25 crore earned in the year-ago period.
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