Payment gateway and payout solution provider for small businesses, IppoPay, on Tuesday, announced its partnership with digital payments company Visa to offer credit cards to small business owners. Aimed at enhancing financial inclusion for small businesses in small cities and rural areas in the country, the credit card is expected to help entrepreneurs with access to working capital when required.
Speaking on the partnership, Sujai Raina, VP and Head – Business Development, Visa India said, “These offerings will empower small merchants with access to working capital and affordable payment solutions, bolstering financial freedom and planning.”
Visa has already exceeded its three-year goal of digitally enabling 50 million micro and small businesses globally by June 2023. The company has helped around 67 million micro and small businesses to meet their evolving payment needs, focusing on digitizing more ways to be paid by customers, ways to pay for supplies, goods and services, and providing access to financial skills through training and education.
“The small business segment which represents a base of over 100 million in India is deeply underserved by conventional card providers leaving an opportunity of over $330 billion completely unaddressed,” said Mohan K, CEO and Founder, IppoPay.
“Given the size of the opportunity and our inherent moat in this space, we believe we are best positioned to address their credit demands,” he said.
IppoPay provides merchants with solutions including QR UPI, prepaid cards, sound box, Point of Sale (PoS) devices other than digital loans. According to the company, it has over 5 lakh merchants.
Importantly, in November this year, Visa and its non-profit initiative Visa Foundation had also announced a $100 million pledge to support underserved and women-led micro and small businesses in APEC economies over five years with digital financial inclusion, job creation, and access to capital.
To support small businesses with quicker access to capital, SBI Card had also launched a credit card in September this year. Likewise, AU Small Finance Bank in May this year had launched its Business Cashback RuPay Credit card for small businesses and self-employed customers with benefits including 2 per cent cashback, 48-day interest-free credit, and instant loans.
