Paytm, a fintech company, unveiled the “Paytm card sound box” on Monday. This upgraded soundbox now accepts card payments in addition to mobile payments. The cost of the newly released smartphone is Rs 999.

“Paytm has always been at the forefront of innovating for India’s small businesses, solving their payments and financial services problems. Today with Paytm Card Soundbox, we take it to the next level. We have found that merchants and consumers need card acceptance as simply as mobile payments with Paytm QR Code,” Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO, of Paytm, said.

“Paytm Card Soundbox is a pan India product and we aim to take this to 550 cities,” said Bhavesh Gupta, President and COO, of Paytm.

Through the integrated “tap and pay” feature of Paytm Card Soundbox, businesses may take card payments up to Rs 5,000. The system supports all Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and RuPay networks, and it also supports mobile payments.

The Made in India gadget boasts a 4W speaker, a five-day battery life, and 4G network access.

“With this device, we would democratize card payments at a micro-level,” said Bipin Kaul, CBO – EDC Retail Business, Paytm

According to him, the gadget makes payments more accessible, and card acceptance will increase as a result.

When necessary, the retailer can turn off the sound box’s card tap feature.

The ‘Paytm for Business software allows the merchant to choose from 11 different languages for the device’s alerts.

Additionally, Paytm Card Soundbox enables users of NFC-capable smartphones to use the tap feature to pay using their phones.

“The time is very apt for such a unique intervention that you have. There is a huge digital funnel on the consumer side that is growing. Paytm is solving the real issue for the merchants,” said Vikas Varma, COO, South Asia, Mastercard.

The device is a blend of card payments and smartphone payments, according to Ripunjai Gaur, CBO of the company’s offline payments.

With the release of Paytm Soundbox in 2019, Paytm was the first company to use audio-based confirmations.

Paytm’s parent company, One97 Communications, previously claimed a 118% increase in the number of payment devices that its merchants had subscribed to in the first two months of the current fiscal year, which began on 1st April.

In comparison to the same period last year, there were 34 lahks more merchants paying subscriptions for its payment devices, such as soundbox and PoS machines, during the months of April and May, bringing the total to 75 lahks.