Zazoo, a business unit of Net 1 UEPS Technologies, has partnered with Oxigen Services India to integrate its Mobile Virtual Card (MVC) technology to power Visa Prepaid into Oxigen Wallet, in association with RBL Bank as sponsor bank and co-branding partner.
Since its launch in January 2015, Zazoo’s patented MVC technology has already enabled mobile payment solutions for the likes of Uber South Africa, Microsoft, Funifi in the UK and BitX.
Oxigen is one of India’s largest and most established payment solutions providers and is regarded as an industry leader in recharges, money transfers, bill payments, social media and various other payments. The company provides an easy to use, turnkey solution for its customers and is at the forefront of India’s drive to migrate to electronic transactions.
“Oxigen is a leader in promoting financial inclusion for the masses of India, and our technology will enable them to penetrate the market further by providing interoperability to their current semi-closed loop wallet,” says Philip Belamant, MD of Zazoo. “For the first time ever, Oxigen users will be able to transact anywhere Visa is accepted. These spending locations include social networks and merchants like Amazon, FlipKart, Snapdeal and Zomato. We are thrilled to partner with Oxigen as we continue to grow our global footprint and we are confident that the power of our technology will assist in increasing Oxigen’s user adoption in India.”
“Introducing the Oxigen Wallet to India is in line with our strategy of extending financial inclusion,” says Ankur Saxena, director and chief mentor of Oxigen Wallet. “The collaboration between Oxigen, ZAZOO and Visa has made it possible for us to give potentially one billion mobile customers in India access to instant electronic payments online/onmobile, through the Oxigen Wallet mobile app.”
The Oxigen Wallet will use ZAZOO’s MVC technology to power the Visa prepaid card securely and off-line for card-not-present transactions, such as e-commerce or m-commerce purchases. The MVC technology runs as an application on any mobile phone, transforming it into a cashless, secure and convenient electronic payment device that eliminates the risks of theft, phishing, skimming, spoofing and other fraudulent activities.
“Oxigen has always been a frontrunner in all its business verticals and we are continuously striving to add further value to our expanding product proposition. This is for the first time ever in India that a mobile wallet user, banked or unbanked, will be able to make transactions on all ecommerce/payment sites where Visa is accepted. Our association with ZAZOO and Visa helps us attain another milestone as India’s leading digital payments solution provider by giving our customers another secure means of making payments,” adds Pramod Saxena, chairman and MD of Oxigen Services India.
Oxigen Wallet customers will be able to use the application to make any purchases or bill payments at online merchants, or send virtual gift cards to friends and family. To launch MVC with Oxigen, Zazoo has also partnered with TranServ, with whom it has a strong and growing relationship.
Secular trends strongly support robust growth in India’s mobile commerce industry. Accordingly to TRACXN!, digital transactions are expected to account for 27% of total transactions by 2020. Smartphone adoption is rapidly increasing, which in turn drives internet usage as more than 60% of India’s roughly 350-million Internet users access the web from their phone, according to IAMAI. It is estimated that it took over a decade for India’s Internet user base to grow from 10-million to 100-million, three years to cross 200-million, and last year alone reached 300-million. Similarly, a Goldman Sachs report states that Indians spend approximately $20-billion annually online which is expected to grow 15-fold to $300-billion by 2030.
