London-based digital finance firm Revolut announced on Wednesday that it is set to launch its payment platform in India, marking its foray into one of the world’s largest digital payments markets.
This move is a key part of the company’s plan to expand its services globally. The company already operates in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, the United States and Brazil, among several other nations.
What services will it offer in India?
Reuters reported that the fintech firm will extend its services to 350,000 waitlisted customers later this year before rolling out the platform to others.
Revolut will enable Indian users to make both domestic and international payments by leveraging its tie-ups with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Visa.
Paroma Chatterjee, CEO of Revolut India, confirmed that the company will offer a prepaid card and a digital wallet to the Indian users. The firm is licensed to offer these domestic payment services using the prepaid payments instrument license that it secured from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) earlier this year, Chatterjee said, adding that the company also has a license to offer foreign exchange (forex) services.
Global ambitions and investment
Revolut is betting big on India as a core component of its global growth strategy. The company has set an ambitious target of signing up 20 million customers by 2030, specifically targeting the “aspirational youth” demographic, Chatterjee told Reuters.
To meet India’s data sovereignty rules, Revolut has invested over 40 million pounds (about $53.7 million) in localising its technology. A company spokesperson noted that this is the only market where Revolut has made such a localisation investment. This expansion comes as the firm also said last month that it was exploring a US bank purchase and a credit card launch in the UK.