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Next time when you walk into a retail outlet and realise you don’t have cash or debit/credit card or prepaid mobile wallet to pay for your purchase, do not worry. With the technological advancement, all you need is a smartphone to transact. MOWA-Mobile payment application developed by the Bengaluru-based iKaaz Software, will soon have a newer version, where people can transact using ‘tap-and-pay’ service. This model is designed based on NFC (near-field communication) payment model which allows two devices placed within a particular range to exchange data.
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“The pocket friendly NFC technology will enable small merchants to transact easily and help them in saving time at the billing counters,” said Soma Sundaram, founder and CEO of iKaaz Software. “Mowa is completely different from other traditional wallets available in the market. People do not have to load money into an additional
account. The credit/debit card of the user will be integrated and it will be password secured. The user can just place the mobile on the merchant terminal to complete the transaction,” he added.
The app currently allows users who are MOWA platform to transfer money by just using the mobile numbers, without having to know the receiver’s bank account number. iKaaz is also currently operating a prepaid card based payment model in Bangalore, which is customised according to Merchant requirement. It has tie-ups with US Pizza, New Shanthi Sagar, Adigas, MK Ahmed Retail, Empire group of hotels, and other merchants in Bengaluru. The company is also in talks with Coffee Day Enterprises to implement this payment model across its outlets.
NFC cards are issued at a nominal cost of R50 for the users and terminals cost R2,500 for merchants. The company said it is clocking half a million transactions a month, up by 60% in the last 6 months. “By next year, we expect to reach 5 million transactions a month,” Soma said. Another advantage of this service is, using data sciences, the merchants will be able to analyse the customer purchase pattern and offer discounts and benefits accordingly. In terms of security, there are three factor authentication: Using app, mobile message and through email notification. Even when one loses a mobile, there is lesser chance of it being misused as the app requires a pass code to open during the transaction phase, the company claims.
iKaaz had raised an undisclosed amount in seed round of funding led by Ananda Kallugadde, MD of Neo Bytes Software Solutions and is looking for the next round of funding. “We are a product company and the fund raising is an ongoing process. Currently we are placed in a better position and are in discussions with key investors for fund raising,” Soma said.
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