Payment via Miss Call will now be possible with MissCallPay! Know How?
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MissCallPay aims to provide UPI-based payment solutions for the Bharat population or Non-tech savvy people using feature phones. Founded by Mitesh Thakker, MissCallPay has introduced voice-based payment solutions using the mechanism of 'Miss Call'. The startup is expecting to commercialize the launch in December 2021 and is already in talks with banks to launch the 1st voice-based payment solution for their customers.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Mitesh Thakker (Founder, MissCallPay) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. Know how MissCall was started, its funding details challenges faced, future plans, and more.
MissCallPay - Company Highlights
| Startup Name | MissCallPay |
|---|---|
| Founder | Mitesh Thakker |
| Headquarters | Mumbai |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Industry | Fintech |
| Website | misscallpay.com |
MissCallPay - About and Vision
MissCallPay - Industry/Market Details
MissCallPay - Journey of Ideation & Launch
MissCallPay - Ideology behind the name
MissCallPay - Founder
MissCallPay - Challenges Faced
MissCallPay - Funding and Advisors
MissCallPay - Competitors
MissCallPay - Recognition & Achievements
MissCallPay - Future Plans
MissCallPay - FAQs
MissCallPay - About and Vision
MissCallPay is a fintech startup providing a payment solution based on UPI for the Bharat population or Non-tech savvy people using feature phones. It is a pioneer in bringing voice-based payment solutions and aims to bring banking & financial services to all the strata of society. This payment platform would enable Indians to go cashless thus making mobile payments simpler for the masses who are digitally not tech-savvy.
"We aim to bring convenience & ease of use to all the users whether they are not digitally literate or bandwidth is slow or using feature phones. This product is for everyone" - Mitesh Thakker, Founder, MissCallPay.
The team has designed a payment solution simply keeping in mind the feature phone users and Non-tech savvy people using simply a MISS CALL which is a known habit to entire masses in Bharat. One needs to give a missed call to a merchant-specific number to initiate a transaction, post which user get a call back to confirm the Merchant Name and amount over voice call in their local language and once they confirm the transaction by inputting their UPI PIN for their Bank account linked with UPI the transaction is processed and SMS Notification is sent to both payer and payee.
MissCallPay - Industry/Market Details
From relevant government sources -
- India has 117.6 cr wireless subscribers but only less than 20 crore use UPI. Thus, close to 97 crores, people are still to adopt digital payments.
- Nearly 96 % of Indian villages (5.72 lakhs out of 5.97 lakhs villages have mobile /network connectivity with over 500 million (50 crores) using feature phones.
- Thus, there is a very big wide untapped market with unique opportunities for Misscallpay to serve the close to a billion underserved population.
Voice payment technology is transforming the FinTech industry. The global voice payment market size reached USD 19.87 Billion in 2020 and is expected to register a revenue CAGR of 9.8%, during the forecast period, according to the latest analysis by Emergen Research. The Asia Pacific is expected to account for the largest revenue share than other regional markets over the forecast period owing to increasing demand for voice-enabled consumer electronics products including smartphones, laptops, smartwatches, and laptops in countries in the region.
Rishabh Rathi
MissCallPay - Journey of Ideation & Launch
Mitesh got the inspiration to start MissCallPay, when he was attending a vibrant Gujarat Summit, listening to the motivational speech of PM Modi that deliberated startups to innovate and think of what problems they can solve for the population. Moreover, during demonetization, he saw how people were facing problems in terms of cash. Being an innovator, his mind was full of ideas and when Mitesh heard PM's speech, he decided on a product aiming for making India cashless thus benefiting the entire population. Thus, he took a plunge into the fintech space. He realized that financial inclusion without a payment solution that works without the Internet, smartphones are going to be a challenge in India, but he worked on the product using awarded patents and thus MissCallPay was born. Mitesh then started building the MissCallPay prototype product.
It was around this time, the founder began participating in various startup challenges. One of them was IIGP 2.0, a Social Impact Innovation Challenge organized by FICCI and supported by Tata Trusts, Lockheed Martin, CIIE, IIM-Ahmedabad, IIT-Bombay, MIT-USA, and DST, the Government of India. Mitesh was short-listed as a Top-50 Finalist for social impact innovations at IIGP 2018. There was no looking back as he won Fintegrate Zone F50 2018 and Maharashtra Startup Week 2019.
Despite winning numerous awards, there were many hurdles to make Misscallpay a reality. One among them was not fulfilling the minimum net worth requirement for RBI Regulatory Sandbox for feature payment. Thus, he started exploring African markets, then he came across Bill Gates' Grand Challenge announcement for Feature phone payments with 1 lakh US Dollars Prize money for 3 winners. This participation gave a ray of hope and a huge but final opportunity to make MissCallPay idea see the light of the day in India.
The Bill Gates Grand Challenge was highly competitive as over 750 Global Innovations were vying for this prestigious award and pilot opportunity in the world's largest market for feature phones. Mitesh won this challenge defeating 750 global contestants to pilot a Feature phone and voice-based Payment solution in India. This grant which he received helped sustain the business operations, and the pilot got him running and building a solid team. After months of making the scalable product and getting the certifications done.
"We are expecting to commercialize the launch next month (Dec'21) and are already in talks with banks to launch our 1st voice-based payment solution for their customers" - Mitesh added.
MissCallPay - Ideology behind the name
Miss Call is known to everyone including the Bharat population. So the team wanted to introduce a payment solution that adapts to the habits of the masses. Thus by the name “MissCallPay”, the startup wanted to resonate with this population.
MissCallPay - Founder
Mitesh Thakker is the founder of MissCallPay and has over 21 years of experience selling, marketing, and building IT products in startup environments. Moreover, he has six patents to his credit. Mitesh is an MBA graduate from SP Jain and has done his product management training from Blackbolt Consulting USA.
MissCallPay - Challenges Faced
Any startup journey is a mixed bag of learning new things and challenges. But one major challenge Mitesh encountered was a new authentication method that needed clearance from bureaucrats. Since 2018 he visited various higher authorities to make them aware of MissCallPay and get the use-case cleared. But things didn't move as the priorities of the regulators were altogether different. It was only in December 2019, when the need for UPI payments on feature phone payment became a priority, RBI announced its first cohort, Regulatory Sandbox, for feature-phone payment solutions. In spite of this innovation, he got disqualified as it didn't fulfill the minimum net worth requirement for RBI Regulatory Sandbox applicants which was another roadblock.
Anik Banerjee
MissCallPay - Funding and Advisors
MissCallPay has raised an undisclosed angel funding.
Advisor/Mentor: Raju Wadalkar (currently on Board with Hygge Energy and former CTO of Tech Mahindra) and MissCallPay is incubated with the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) team, IIM Ahmedabad
MissCallPay - Competitors
Tonetag and Gupshup are the competitors of MissCallPay.
MissCallPay - Recognition & Achievements
The company has gained global recognition for the innovation done in the payment solution.
- MissCallPay was the Winner of Bill Gates Grand Challenge for feature phone payments 2020. It received the cash prize of $ 30,000 and has been piloted by NPCI and PSU Bank of India in support of the Gates Foundation.
- It was shortlisted as a Top-50 finalist for social impact innovation at IIGP 2018, India Innovation Growth Program 2.0
- Fintegrate 2019 awards MissCallPay as one of the leading startups in the Fintech space
- MissCallPay was recognized at the Maharashtra Startup Week, 2019 organized by MSInS and won the reward of Rs.15 lakhs for its innovation among #Fintech Start-ups of 3200+
- Mitesh Thakker (Founder, MissCallPay) was short-listed as a Top-50 Finalist for social impact innovations at IIGP 2018.
MissCallPay - Future Plans
The startup is building a strong leadership team for successful execution and plans to work/partner with a couple of banks to help them serve more than 100 million users by the end of the year 2022.
Sarika Anand
MissCallPay - FAQs
What is MissCallPay?
MissCallPay is a fintech startup providing a payment solution based on UPI for the Bharat population or Non-tech savvy people using feature phones. It is a pioneer in bringing voice-based payment solutions.
Who is the founder of MissCallPay?
Mitesh Thakker is the founder of MissCallPay.
When will MissCallPay commercially launch?
MissCallPay is expecting to commercialize the launch around December 2021 and is already in talks with banks to launch its 1st voice-based payment solution for their customers.
Is MissCallPay an Indian company?
Yes. MissCallPay is an Indian company headquartered in Mumbai.
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