Ishita Nigam
27 Sept 2023
The approximately $8 billion company has been tying up with Indian banks for decades but has started acquiring its own merchants to offer payment services in India.
French service provider Worldline has partnered with banks in India for more than two decades to install Android Point of Sale (PoS) devices in over 500,000 merchant outlets. But now it plans to join the bandwagon of payment services in the country.
Worldline has started partnering directly with merchants like grocery stores, chemists, restaurants, and other retailers to offer online payment services. It plans to begin offering offline payments, which may need a fresh license as per RBI guidelines. It is also contemplating becoming a third party payment app on UPI interface.
Worldline received an in-principle approval from RBI in December 2022 to become a payment aggregator. It partnered with Indian retail technology provider SignCatch in April 2023 to enroll 100,000 MSMEs within three months of launch. It will compete with players like Paytm, PhonePe, and Pine Labs. Worldline will serve the Indian market craving more omnichannel payment solutions.