India was one of the fastest growing digital payments markets before the pandemic hit and now many of the companies leading the race face an uncertain future; the market features homegrown Paytm, India’s highest valued startup, government backed UPI and tech giants like Google and Amazon; Unified Payments Interface or UPI saw a doubling of volume before the country went into lockdown; while there has been some recovery the numbers have yet to come fully back; UPI has also changed the dynamic in the market by lowering the barrier to entry and bringing fees down, which has hit margins of private venture backed companies; the path forward is not clear at all, especially for companies like Paytm who rely on outside capital; “It will be unclear, possibly for 12 to 24 months. One doesn’t know how long,” said Rehan Yar Khan, a Managing Partner at Orios Venture Partners, to the FT. “If retail is going to continue to be subdued, then payments are going to continue to be subdued.”; one possible way forward is for payments companies to start building a product suite to cross sell on the data collected through payments transactions. Financial Times.
