Tata Payments Secures RBI License for Payment Aggregation

• ByStartupStory     |    January 2, 2024

Tata Payments, the digital payments app under Tata Digital, secured a payment aggregator (PA) license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), allowing the firm to facilitate ecommerce transactions through its platform. This milestone places Tata Payments alongside leading names like Razorpay, Cashfree, and Google Pay, enabling it to manage funds within its subsidiary entities more effectively.

Anonymously, the founder of a digital payment startup commented, “With the payment aggregator licence, Tata can power all ecommerce transactions within its subsidiary entities which will help it manage funds better.”

In a similar vein, Bengaluru-based identity verification startup DigiO, supported by investment platform Groww, also obtained the PA licence as of January 1. This license empowers DigiO to integrate payment services atop its digital identification solutions.

Tata Group had introduced its digital payments application on the Unified Payments Interface in collaboration with ICICI Bank in 2022. Despite strategizing an elaborate financial services approach, the conglomerate’s consumer traction remains limited at present.

This marks Tata’s second venture into the payments business within the group, having previously acquired the license to operate ‘white label ATMs’ in rural India under Tata Communications, branded as Indicash.

RBI records indicate that Tata had previously initiated a prepaid payments business (mobile wallets) but relinquished the license in 2018. As reported by ET on December 20, the RBI’s recent grant of PA licenses allowed new merchant onboarding for Razorpay and Cashfree after nearly a year.

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