Online recharge and mobile wallet platform Mobikwik has now secured a staggering $25 million in Series B round of funding led by Tree Lines with participation of Cisco Investments, American Express and Sequoia Capital.
The freshly raised money will be used technology/data analytic, build brand and growing users and merchants across its network. It is also planning to expand into IoT where payments can be made by machines.
Along with the access to Cisco’s networking technology, the company will also gain access to American Express’ expertise in payments processing.
Mobikwik was founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku. It offers prepaid mobile, DTH and data card recharge service, post-paid mobile bills payment and utility bill payment for electricity, gas and landline connections. It currently has more than 15 million users and 25,000 merchants.
Bipin Preet Singh, founder and CEO, MobiKwik, said,
With over 15 million wallet users, and neutrality towards 25,000 merchants, we are now aiming for the next level of growth and building a ubiquitous mobile wallet for a billion Indians. With 90 per cent of Indians being unbanked, simplified payments via a mobile wallet make perfect sense.
The company is planning to create brick-and-mortar retail stores across India which will serve as points for cash loading into the wallet and for wallet payments acceptance. It has also applied for a payments bank license.
Mobikwik currently claims to have over 15 Million users for its platform, with signups from over 25,000 merchants. In fact, the startup recently tied up with Cafe Coffee Day to allow customers to pay at all CCD outlets using its cashless payment mechanism.
Mobikwik’s series B round is another indicator of investors’ surging interest in India’s mobile-only future. as people get to e-commerce to purchase more and more of their products, mobile wallets have become quintessential to that growth. moreover, many other services like Uber, also allow people to pay via cashless transactions, thus making the entire process even more important.
Earlier, the company raised somewhere in the vicinity $5 million in Series A round from an undisclosed VC firm which is believed to be Sequoia Capital. In the vertical of online recharge, the company is having tight fight against PayTM and Freecharge.
