Utkarsh Biradar, chief executive officer of payments experience firm Momoe discuss the ease of using Momoe for payments, their increase in user acquisition and their future plans
- You had a good career going. What drove you to start Momoe?
There are many times when we are dissatisfied by the way things are and want to make that change happen. We felt that this was a great problem to solve and make lives easier by ensuring that they can now transact with their phone. We felt that this was so big and disruptive that the corporate salaries and benefits seemed very small compared to the opportunity of solving this
- How easy is for any brand to get associated with Momoe?
Any merchant or brand can start accepting mobile payments through Momoe in less than a day. Since there is no requirement of hardware, setup fees, annual maintenance contracts etc., there are no hurdles to start accepting Momoe mobile payments. To sign up, the merchant can visit https://www.momoe.in/reach/, or write to sales@momoe.in, or call us at +91 80 3364 6065.
- What strategy you have for user acquisition?
Momoe is a simple new way of transacting through your phone. Users no longer have to carry cash or cards and we will see adoption when users find Momoe at most stores she frequents accepting Momoe payments. So, our user acquisition has focused on presence at our partner restaurants and retail stores. We build awareness about the product and usage scenarios through mass channels such as radio and newspapers. We also acquire relevant users from digital channels such as Facebook and Google ads, web and mobile app ads.
“We will ramp up our to enable pan-India presence in the top 10 cities”
- How many transactions happen on daily basis and what is the average transaction size?
Momoe sees about 1000 transactions on a daily basis, with an average ticket size of Rs. 800. The adoption is growing rapidly, and we are seeing 50% week-on-week growth in transactions.
- Momoe is only operational in Bangalore, when do you plan to go pan-India?
We are planning to expand to the top 5 cities in India by March 2016.
- Who do you see as your competition currently?
There are startups competing in-restaurant payments at this time (Quikwallet in Mumbai, Ruplee in Delhi), but no credible player has gone across brick-and-mortar stores as yet. We expect more players to enter this space as it opens up, but we are well positioned to be the leader in real world payments.
- What will the company look like in a year? From any and all perspectives — product, people, team, revenue?
We will ramp up our team across sales, operations, technology and marketing functions to enable pan-India presence in the top 10 cities in India with over 10,000 outlets accepting payments. Momoe will evolve to be a one-stop mobile payment solution for users when they eat, shop and commute. Our partner merchants will be able to use our CRM platform to reach out and engage their customer base in the neighbourhood with relevant information and offers.
Aiming to be the leader in real world payments
