Mumbai: UK-based fintech Revolut is looking to replicate its global approach to cross-border payments in India, targeting smoother transactions in key segments such as travel and education, a top company official said.
“Over the past year, we have built an integrated platform for domestic and international transactions. India is increasingly becoming more global and consumer demand in sectors such as travel and education is growing,” Revolut India CEO Paroma Chatterjee said in a fireside chat at the BFSI Mint conclave.
To make these payments easier, the company has linked the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Visa.
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With the number of Indians going to study abroad nearly doubling to around 1.5 million students in the past year, Chatterjee highlighted the growing opportunity to simplify foreign payments for basic services such as fee payment, monthly maintenance costs such as rent and other living expenses.
When it comes to travel, she mentioned making it easier to pay in advance for flight and hotel reservations and then spend on food, sightseeing and other activities.
Invasion of India
Her comments come just over two months after the digital finance company outlined plans to launch its payments platform in the country, marking its foray into one of the world’s largest digital payments markets.
The firm is licensed to offer domestic payment services using the prepaid payment instrument license it received from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) earlier this year, and is also licensed to offer foreign exchange services.
Revolut’s main competitors in India and globally include established players like Wise for international transfers, local payment giants like PhonePe & Paytm for domestic digital payments, along with new Indian entrants like Skydo, which according to various reports offer tailor-made solutions for freelancers and SMEs.
“In total, we have about 40 million people who travel overseas and need to spend money in an accessible and efficient way. Indians spent about $40 billion overseas with about $400 million in cross-currency markup fees,” Chatterjee explained, citing this as one of the key areas the firm is trying to address.
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Apart from making it more affordable, Revolut India is also trying to address the time it takes to send money across countries as it takes three to four days depending on the country.
“Third is transparency – the money we send overseas usually involves high-priced transactions, so it’s not always clear whether it has reached the recipient and what amount will be deducted in fees. So we’re also trying to streamline the processes to track the flow of money,” Chatterjee added.
The addressable opportunity is massive and there is huge room for disruption in the space. “India is the largest recipient of inbound remittances, earning about $129 billion last year – more than double that of Mexico. Simply put, the amount of money Indians are sending back is only growing, and making it accessible is a key area of focus,” she explained.
Solution of sub-segments
Speaking at a fireside chat titled “Opportunities in Cross-Border Payments,” Chatterjee also highlighted efforts to address other sub-segments such as medical tourism, which sees a growing number of Indians travel overseas for specialized treatment — and for business-related purposes where freelancers, advertisers, influencers and those working in content creation for people from other countries need to get money from people from their employers.
This development is key to Revolut’s big bet on India as a major part of its global growth strategy.
The company aims to acquire 20 million customers by 2030, targeting the “aspirational youth” demographic. Revolut considers India as its biggest talent hub with more than 3,500 employees after an initial seed investment of $45 million, according to reports.
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It also operates in the UK, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, the US and Brazil, and several other countries.
Chatterjee urged countries to come together and simplify multi-currency payments. She said regulators and governments should work together to facilitate seamless international payment transactions.
“With different countries having their own native payments, this can create more complexity in the wider international ecosystem. There needs to be global guidelines for passing payments so that each of these lanes can run smoothly,” Chatterjee said. “I think those are the things that need to come together for regulators and countries to come together to make it seamless.”
“We need a passport equivalent to a global financial identity and one common standard for global financial rails. If the two align, borderless finance can truly be enabled,” she concluded.
