BharatPe’s PoS Business Grows to $4 Billion Annualised Transaction Value

In the last 12 months, fintech firm BharatPe has increased the reach of its PoS (point of sale) business (BharatSwipe) by 25 times to over 250 cities. The company has deployed over 1.25 lakh BharatSwipe machines across offline retailers since launching its POS business in the second half of 2020. BharatPe claims it has done the fastest-ever scale-up on POS business in India, achieving this record in little over a year and a half.

BharatPe, India’s third-largest private point-of-sale operator, also announced a 200 percent increase in the annualised transaction value from its PoS business in the last year. The division now accounts for nearly a quarter of the company’s total payments Transaction Processed Value (TPV). Since 2021, more than half of BharatSwipe machines have been placed in tier-2 and tier-3 towns and cities, owing to the company’s expansion of its PoS business in non-metro locations. Small merchants and retailers have uniformly accepted BharatSwipe in a variety of sectors, including grocery, food & beverage, electronics, and durables, among others.

“BharatSwipe has been the biggest growth storey in India’s POS industry,” said Suhail Sameer, CEO of BharatPe. “From a humble beginning with 10 cities in the middle of Covid in 2020 to processing $4 billion payments annually today, BharatSwipe has been the biggest growth storey in India’s POS industry. We have seen multi-fold growth in our POS business over the last year, owing to our aggressive expansion plans in tier-2, 3 and 4 towns and cities.”

Due to the usual high rentals connected with POS, the company noticed that a huge percentage of merchants in smaller cities had never utilised a POS system and saw this as an opportunity to promote our zero-rental POS equipment.

“We were able to bring POS to several small shops in last-mile places like Alappuzha, Azamgarh, and Chalisgaon, which have minimal digital penetration.” Over 60% of our merchants are first-time POS users, according to Sameer.

The switch to digital payments has a number of advantages for retailers and the economy as a whole, including increased customer satisfaction during pandemics, improved transaction records, and, most critically, access to credit. “The addition of POS allows us to analyse a merchant’s financial strength based on his daily transactions and, in cooperation with NBFCs, facilitate business loans based on the merchant’s eligibility,” said Sameer.

BharatSwipe is India’s first zero-rent card acceptance machine, allowing retailers to avoid transaction costs. BharatSwipe was launched in the midst of Covid in 2020 and garnered a lot of positive feedback. Merchants can use BharatSwipe to generate tangible receipts for both QR transactions and BharatPe UPI QR transactions.

BharatPe and Axis Bank formed a strategic alliance in August of last year. As part of the agreement, Axis Bank became the acquiring bank for BharatPe’s point of sale (POS) service, BharatSwipe, which allows merchants affiliated with BharatPe to take credit and debit cards. With the goal of improving the consumer experience on its POS devices, the company stated it will continue to scale up strategic collaborations with banks, financial institutions, and brands. By March 2023, the company hopes to have reached a TPV of $ 30 billion on QR and Swipe payments.