🚨 Zoho Corporation founder Sridhar Vembu is gearing up to challenge Paytm & PhonePe with his new UPI platform, Zoho Pay 🏦
India’s digital payments space is about to get a fresh challenger. Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu and his company are reportedly readying to launch Zoho Pay, a Unified Payments Interface (UPI)–based platform aimed at rivalling the heavyweights Paytm and PhonePe.
With ambitious plans and integration with other Zoho enterprises, this move has the potential to shake up how payments are done in India.
🔸 What’s happening?
Zoho is working on launching Zoho Pay — a full-fledged consumer payments app built on the UPI infrastructure. (The Financial Express)
According to sources:
🔸 It will be available as a standalone mobile app. (The Financial Express)
🔸 It will also be integrated into Zoho’s messaging service Arattai (so users can send and receive money from within chat). (The Financial Express)
🔸 It’s still under internal testing and will roll out in phases across India. (Zee News)
🔸 Zoho already holds a payment-aggregator licence and has launched payment gateway & POS solutions, making the jump to consumer payments more natural. (The Economic Times)
🔸 Why now, and why does it matter?
🔸 India’s UPI ecosystem is mature and massive — tapping into it means access to millions of users who already make digital payments daily.
🔸 Zoho is well-known for its SaaS and business software portfolio; this move signals its ambition to expand deeper into consumer-facing fintech.
🔸 By combining messaging + payments (through Arattai + Zoho Pay), Zoho may leverage network effects: chat + money in one place.
🔸 For users and merchants, more competition among payment platforms could mean better rates, features, and services.
🔸 For Zoho, this is a strategic push into one of India’s hottest sectors: fintech, payments, commerce.
🔸 Key features to expect from Zoho Pay
Based on reports:
🔸 Support for UPI payments, sending/receiving money. (Inc42 Media)
🔸 Integration with Zoho’s wider ecosystem (business tools, invoices, portals) — for merchants especially. (The Financial Express)
🔸 Multi-channel payment options: cards, net banking, payment links etc. (The Financial Express)
🔸 Robust security and compliance (PCI DSS, ISO standards) as flagged in media. (NDTV Profit)
🔸 Low platform fees for UPI transactions (reports say ~0.5%) and higher for cards etc. (NDTV Profit)
🔸 Who are the competitors and what does Zoho face?
🔸 Paytm and PhonePe are entrenched players in India’s digital payments market.
🔸 Google Pay is another major rival with strong user base.
🔸 Zoho will face challenges in user-acquisition, brand trust, merchant adoption, network liquidity.
🔸 But Zoho’s edge: its enterprise tools, integration with business software, home-grown “made in India” positioning.
🔸 For example, Zoho founder Vembu has emphasised interoperability and a non-closed ecosystem. (The Economic Times)
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🔸 Strategic implications & potential impact
🔸 For businesses: If Zoho Pay integrates seamlessly with Zoho’s business software (CRM, invoicing), merchants may find greater value in adopting it.
🔸 For consumers: A new player means another option — could lead to better offers, smoother UX, localized features.
🔸 For fintech ecosystem: Increased competition may push innovation; however, market consolidation is also possible.
🔸 For Zoho: If successful, this marks its entry into a high-volume, consumer-facing market — raising stakes significantly.
🔸 Challenges ahead
🔸 Building a large user base in a market dominated by a few.
🔸 Ensuring high reliability, low transaction failures, strong customer support.
🔸 Merchant adoption — especially offline merchants used to existing players.
🔸 Regulatory & compliance aspects in payments space — security, data privacy, fraud risk.
🔸 Profitability: payments business often scales with volume but margins can be thin.
🔸 Conclusion
With Zoho Pay, Sridhar Vembu and Zoho are taking a bold step beyond enterprise software and entering the heart of India’s digital payments ecosystem. The integration of chat + payments, the use of UPI, and Zoho’s existing infrastructure offer a credible platform — but the real test will be in execution, adoption and user experience. 💼
If you’re in fintech, payments, or simply interested in India’s digital economy, this is a story to watch closely.
Hashtags:
#ZohoPay #DigitalPayments #UPI #FintechIndia #SridharVembu #Paytm #PhonePe #Arattai #MadeInIndia