Days after Paytm launched the UPI SDK, fintech upstart Razorpay announced the debut of ‘Turbo UPI,’ a one-step payment solution for the UPI network, on Tuesday (May 30).
According to Razorpay, the service would allow customers to make payments without being transferred to a third-party app during the checkout process. The service was introduced by the fintech firm in collaboration with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Axis Bank.
It should be noted that Paytm introduced its UPI SDK (Software Development Kit) last week, allowing clients to make UPI payments from within the apps of online businesses rather than being redirected to the Paytm app.
Razorpay Enterprises claimed in a statement that Turbo UPI will provide a speedier payment experience by avoiding redirection to other payment apps. According to the fintech upstart, businesses might experience a 10% rise in the success rate of UPI payments on their platforms.
“Turbo UPI also provides granular insights into end-user drop-off patterns and enables merchants to control their customers’ entire payment experience, end-to-end,” according to the release.
While UPI is poised to prevail as the preferred digital payment method, businesses are trying to reduce reliance on third-party apps and solve the lack of visibility into their consumer drop-offs during the payment process, according to Razorpay.
Turbo UPI has been linked into a variety of apps and platforms, including grocery delivery platform Tata StarQuik, online travel aggregators ixigo and Trainman, gifts and flowers platform Ferns N Petals, and stock trading portal Dhan.
“We wanted to build a solution that not only made the end-users’ UPI payment experience fast & frictionless but will also help businesses with a significant increase in success rate by 10% for UPI transactions, empowering businesses with higher revenue potential in the evolving digital landscape,” said Shashank Kumar, cofounder and MD at Razorpay.
A one-step approach, according to Kumar, lowers the possibility of non-technical errors that might lead to drop-offs and increases UPI transactions.
Indian Fintechs and Their Addiction to UPI
According to NPCI data, the number of UPI transactions set a new high in April 2023, jumping 2.45% to 889.81 Cr from 868.53 Cr the previous month.
The NPCI has set an ambitious goal of 1 billion daily UPI transactions. A typical day in April 2023 saw approximately 296.60 Mn transactions, which is close to 30% of the target.
Because of the enormous potential for growth in UPI payments, fintech platforms have begun exploiting the immediate payment system to develop new solutions.
CRED also started their UPI service last year and has a modest percentage of UPI payments. CRED executed 4.57 Cr transactions (0.5% of total transaction count) worth INR 20,729 Cr (1.5% of total transaction value) in April 2023.
In April, the Kunal Shah-led fintech unicorn also introduced peer-to-peer (P2P) UPI payments on its platform.
Overall, PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm processed over 97% of all UPI transactions in April 2023, totaling 862.54 Cr.
PhonePe joined Paytm earlier this month in launching UPI Lite – the no-PIN payments capability for transactions under INR 200. Furthermore, much as Walmart-owned payments firm Paytm began facilitating cross-border UPI payments earlier this year, Paytm revealed plans to expand internationally earlier this month.
