We aim to push financial inclusion and promote digital transactions: Ezeepay

Ezeepay, India's leading fintech startup, was launched in August 2018 to push financial inclusion and promote digital transactions in rural and semi-urban areas. To fulfill this aim, Ezeepay launched Doorstep Digital Services, Pan India.

Ezeepay started with comprehensive payment solutions for businesses that offer mobile recharge, DTH recharge, bill payments, cash withdrawal, and AEPS. The Ezeepay partners offer all these services.

Shams Tabrej, Financial Expert and Founder, Ezeepay, tells us more. Excerpts from an interview:

DQ: Tell us about Ezeepay, and the services that your company offers?

Shams Tabrej: Started in 2018, Ezeepay has been a leading service aggregator and payments solution provider based in India. We provide more than 60+ services, including digital banking services like investment buying, AEPS, microloans, insurance, bank account opening, and money transfer; utility services like bill payments, mobile recharge, hotel, and travel booking; and compliance services like ITR filing, GST registration, MSME registration, among others. It is a very convenient option even for those who are not very good with technology. The company provides all these services to its customers free of cost.

Giving most priority to customer safety, we have developed a mechanism that processes the transaction and transfers the data to the bank. After the completion of the transaction, the data gets deleted automatically. Ezeepay has paid particular focus to extend its services to rural areas as well, for which they started Ezeepay DDS.

We envision promoting digital transactions in rural areas. We plan to install our touchpoints across all the pin codes, well-equipped with all the company’s services like Ezeepay DDS, DTH recharge, mobile recharge, cash withdrawal, bill payments, etc.

We also offer doorstep digital services via an extensive network of on-ground agents. These agents help people access digital banking and conduct online transactions such as bill payments.

DQ: What were Ezeepay's goals and objectives when it was founded?

Shams Tabrej: The idea for this venture was conceived back in 2016. I was standing in a queue to exchange my old demonetized notes. At that time, I noticed that many people around me were daily wage earners and labourers. While interacting with them, I realized that they had been standing there since early morning, at the cost of earning a living that day. After hearing people’s grievances that day, I decided to lay the foundation of Ezeepay.

Through this venture, we aim to make digital transactions more convenient for all our users, no matter where they belong to. We want to make use of digital payment methods as suitable for the people of rural areas as it is for the people of urban areas. Our mission is to take banking to every rural household and solve the problem of banking in rural areas across the country. We are trying to offer the utmost convenience to our users.

DQ: What are your growth plans for 2022?

Shams Tabrej: We have everything planned for the next three years. The startup so far has been self-funded. This year, we intend to go for our first round of funding. The capital that will be raised will be used to scale up the business. Over the next three years, we aim to deploy 2.5 lakh micro-ATMs in rural areas to increase the number of transactions.

DQ: What were the major challenges the company has faced till now?

Shams Tabrej: Just like every startup, we also faced many challenges. Our motive of making digital transactions prominent in rural areas poses many challenges for us. Educating people in rural areas about digital commerce is a challenging task. The first problem is lack of indulgence. Up till now, people have been using only conventional methods of payment.

The next challenge that we face is a lack of adoption. It is difficult for all types of firms to implement fintech, affecting their productivity. It is challenging for an economy dominated by MSMEs, such as India’s. Going digital with payments might be complicated. The third challenge is a lack of awareness. More than 70% of India’s population lives in rural areas. While most urban residents use these digital payment services, we need to raise awareness in rural India.

DQ: How is your company helping customers deliver relevant business outcomes by adopting the company’s technology innovations?

Shams Tabrej: We aim to boost the use of digital transactions by providing digital transactions in rural areas. We have an extensive network of on-ground agents who help people access digital banking and assist them in online transactions such as bill payments. Generating revenues for businesses has become more convenient with the adoption of digital transactions in urban areas.

Since the significant Indian population resides in rural areas, enabling people in these areas to use digital transactions will help the economy more. It will also improve the quality of life in rural areas. We plan to deploy 2.5 lakh micro-ATMs in rural areas to enable more transactions over the next three years.

DQ: What are some of the organizations’ worries before implementing analytics?

Shams Tabrej: During analytics implementation, an organization faces many challenges. Some of them are collecting valuable real-time data, making it readable, acquiring necessary analytical skills, and data integration across the different channels, to name a few. To solve these problems, we suggest that first, a representation of the problem must be created. Units involved must be considered, critical statistics principles must be applied, and the probability of a compound or specific event must be estimated.