The growth of online payment wallets are proof enough of how the Indian consumer has evolved. With the aim of making cash, plastic money and e-wallets a thing of the past, Sony Joy founded Chillr — an app that allows digital payments between bank accounts and immediate transfer of money to contacts in your phonebook easily and quickly. Chillr has 70 employees spread across Mumbai and Cochin. “We realised that people don’t usually put money in wallets and about 80% wallets are empty,” says Joy. Only banks integrated with Chillr can use the application for remitting funds.
However, customers of any bank can receive funds using Chillr. It can process requests for money transfer, split bills amongst friends and can also recharge mobiles, DTH and data cards. “The app also lists retailers where the customer can pay through Chillr money. Unlike wallets, the money isn’t deducted from the savings account unless transactions are made,” adds Joy. All transactions are authenticated by a four-digit PIN issued by the bank and Chillr claims to have hit a transaction value of ₹18 crore so far.
After recently tying up with HDFC Bank, Bank of Baroda, Chillr is working closely with leading banks to accelerate the process. Having crossed about 310,000 downloads, of which 30% are accounted by banks; Joy claims to have more than 80,000 active users of Chillr. “We follow the peer-to-peer model where we plan to charge merchants just the way Visa and MasterCard are charging. It would range between 1-1.25% depending on volume and merchant size,” he says. After getting an initial investment of $1 million by the parent Mobme, the company is about to close its Series A with $6 million from Sequoia Capital. The company is working on increasing its merchant base from 200 at present to 30,000 by the end of March 2016.
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