After the widespread acceptance of Arattai, Sridhar Vembu, the CEO of Zoho Corporation, is now preparing a homegrown payments app. Meant to rival the likes of Paytm and PhonePe, the Zoho Pay app aims to put the company in the midst of the highly contested consumer finance sector. Zoho Pay is currently in testing and is expected to be released soon.
Zoho Pay is currently in its internal testing phase and is slated for a phased rollout across India over the coming months. Designed as a comprehensive peer-to-peer and merchant payments solution, Zoho Pay will be available both as a standalone app and, will be embedded directly into Zoho’s homegrown messaging platform, Arattai.
With such a rollout plan, Zoho will be a formidable contender against established players like Google Pay, PhonePe, and WhatsApp Pay in India’s competitive UPI-driven digital payments market.
Zoho Pay integration in Arattai
One of the most competitive advantages of Zoho Pay will be its deep integration within the Arattai chat platform. By directly embedding payment capabilities into the messaging interface, Zoho wants to make financial transactions as intuitive as sending a text message. Users will be able to send and receive money, settle bills, and transact securely without needing to exit their chat windows. The experience is likely to be similar to WhatsApp.
The integration is expected to transform Arattai into a feature-rich super app. Considering how Arattai has already seen a significant surge in downloads, driven by its “Made in India” positioning and endorsements from government officials, you can expect Zoho Pay to enjoy similar fame.
Zoho expanding the FinTech ecosystem
Zoho Pay is a foundational step in the corporation’s broader strategy to construct an integrated, full-stack fintech ecosystem. Zoho is leveraging its presence in the B2B segment, where it already holds a Payment Aggregator license secured earlier this year. It already offers Zoho Payments for businesses, including proprietary Point-of-Sale (POS) devices for in-person transactions.
