Visa Teams Up with Open, Aims for SMEs
FACTS
- The Indian FinTech Open announces a strategic partnership with Visa.
- Goals: improve and expand their business banking proposition for SMEs.
- Through this partnership, Open will:
- Launch a business credit card,
- Acquire a payment gateway,
- Feature instant payment services.
- Their new card is meant for SMEs and start-ups; it takes into account the amounts they raised rather than their credit history when conducting creditworthiness assessments.
- It should also include a loyalty programme allowing cardholders to collect points when making purchases. Start-ups may swap these points for software subscriptions or Cloud hosting services.
CHALLENGES
- Looking into expert services. Open will rely on Visa’s payment expertise to craft and implement innovative credit and expense management solutions for SMEs.
- Securing corporate customers’ loyalty. The Indian challenger bank may also expand their API offer. In addition to this credit card, start-ups will have access to new features including refunds and real-time payments.
- Win-win partnership. For Visa, this agreement stands out as an opportunity to aim for a specific customer segment. They may contribute to empowering start-ups with access to safer and more convenient payment processes, while consolidating their skills in the credit industry.
MARKET PERSPECTIVE
- Visa again stresses their interest in addressing SMEs’ needs and several partnerships are already in place. They recently teamed up with another Indian player. Besides, the rides-hailing platform Ola, propelled by Visa, now features flexible and convenient payment option, too. They intend to issue 10 million credit cards by 2022.
- Open raised $5 million in February 2019, which also contribute to fuelling their development.