With the demonetization of old ₹500 and ₹1000 notes, a boom is witnessed in the PPI (Prepaid Payment Instrument) sector. Major players like Paytm, Freecharge and PhonePe disrupts the market very well. The market has been fudged with numerous similar wallets like Mobikwik, State Bank Buddy, Oxigen Wallet and more. One of the most buzzed digital payment apps is Chillr.
Chillr is a friendly, multi-bank mobile app with a 360-degree payment experience. It allows users with a bank account to manage all their transactional needs on a single platform seamlessly, thereby making money transfers, payments and recharges faster and safer.
It is the fastest gateway for fund transfers, bill payments and recharges. Chillr’s USP is its strong partnerships with India’s leading and most trusted banks, deep integrations and a core focus on a seamless user experience.
Backwaters Technologies that operates Chillr, a multi-bank mobile payment app in the last year raised $6 million (INR 40 Crores) in Series A round of funding from Sequoia Capital to support the payment app’s growth plans.
Backwaters Technologies was set up in December 2014 with a seed funding of $1 million from the parent company, MobMe Wireless Solutions. Sony Joy co-founded MobME Wireless Solutions with two of his college friends back in 2006 and it has the distinction of being Kerala’s first student incubated company based out of Technopark, Trivandrum. Currently, MobME is headquartered in Kochi and has incubated multiple products in the Fin-Tech space.
The company is looking to establish itself as a people’s banking destination and be at the forefront of India’s digital payments revolution. Headquartered in Mumbai, Chillr was incubated within MobMe Wireless Technologies in December 2013 and was spun off as an independent entity, Backwaters Technology Pvt. Ltd., in December 2014.
The idea behind Chillr came about when the founders – Sony Joy, AnoopSankar, Mohamed Galib and Lishoy Bhaskar– got together and decided to come up with a way to manages all cash transactions in a few simple steps. They realized the need for an app that would be very useful amongst groups of friends who often have to settle small payments, and thus developed Chillr.
All transactions on Chillr are initiated directly from the users’ bank accounts and authenticated by a PIN provided by their bank. The mobile banking app integrates with banks directly and provides complete security for all transactions. With Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Chillr enables 24X7 payments with the greatest security measures in place for every transaction.
With Chillr, customers can encounter a banking experience like never before. For businesses, Chillr offers solutions that ensure maximum efficiency including API/SDKs, retail payments, and mass payments.
Till date, Chillr has garnered 3 million downloads and has completed 2 million transactions.Its services are available in metropolitan cities with plans to scale 4-5 times in the next three months. Chillraimsto and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) very soon and expand its support to a dozen more banks.
Amongst the in-app services, it plans to introduce hotel, flight and movie ticket bookings on which users stand to enjoy several attractive deals and personalized promotions.In addition, the app will also offer a suite of banking services that will cater to the entire spectrum of customer needs such as credit, savings, and investments.
Chillr was incubated in MobME for a year before it was spun off as a separate entity. Through the app, users can send money instantly to anyone in their phone book without having to know the recipient’s account details. Currently, the app has two partner banks, Bank of Baroda and HDFC Bank.
Customers from these two banks can send and receive money, while customers of all other major banks can only receive money, at this stage.
Besides person-to-person money transfer, the app also supports mobile recharges, utility bill payments and payments at online and offline stores. Unlike wallets, Chillr lets users keep the money in their savings bank account to the point of actual expense.
With smartphone adoption on the rise, it is estimated that India will have 314 million mobile internet users by 2017. Also with the penetration of e-commerce, Indians are now more comfortable transacting online.
According to the ‘State of the Internet’ report by Mary Meeker, India, not China, is adding the most Internet users with India constituting the second largest market for Facebook and LinkedIn.
