Online recharge platform MobiKwik to add movie and bus ticketing, looking to close Series A

Gurgaon-based One MobiKwik Systems Pvt Ltd that runs online recharge platform Mobikwik is looking to go beyond the traditional categories of online recharge. It is planning to expand to categories such as movie and bus ticketing as well as enabling e-commerce transactions through its platform.

Bipin Preet Singh, CEO and founder, MobiKwik, told techcircle.in that the firm is in advance stages of raising Series A worth Rs 20 crore. This amount will be used for expanding the platform to other categories. "We want to be the PayPal of India on mobile. We are aiming to be the point of transaction for all recurring transactions that consumers do via our online wallet," he said.

Singh said all newer categories may or may not be on the firm's platform. The company is looking to tie up with third-party vendors such as e-commerce companies and restaurants to make available MobiKwik's wallet as a means of completing transactions. "With this, customers won't have to go through the whole process of payment gateway every time," he said.

Started in 2009, MobiKwik enables prepaid mobile, DTH and data card recharges, postpaid mobile bills payment and utility bill payment for electricity, gas, landline telephone. It also allows these services via SMS, phone and apps which are available for Android, iPhone and Java (you can check out our recent review of MobiKwik's iOS app here: App Tracker: A recharge app for all seasons).

The platform is clocking 40,000-45,000 transactions daily across categories and channels. The Android app alone contributes to 35 per cent of the firm's total turnover. The company's registered user-base spans more than 2 million of which 50 per cent are repeat clients.

MobiKwik competes with players such as One97's Paytm, Freecharge and RechargeitNow.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)