Mumbai : Dvara Kshetriya Gramin Financial Services Pvt Ltd (Dvara KGFS), an NBFC operating in remote rural areas of India, has announced the acquisition of ‘TransactNow’ digital platform from Transact Nexus Tech Private Limited, an early phase tech start up providing digital financial services to the unbanked & underserved population of India through an acquihire mode. With this, Dvara KGFS is starting a new Channel – KGFS Digital which will foray into the agent driven business model providing a vast array of financial services to rural customers through Agent Touch Points located in close proximity to the villages in line with the Omni-Channel Strategy envisaged by Dvara KGFS.
The Covid-19 pandemic has played a major role in Dvara KGFS’s operations to adapt and evolve digital technology based on its observations in customer behavioural patterns. As per IMAI, India has more rural internet users than urban users and thus this upgradation is to ensure that banking process are made easy and simple for the people in the rural areas with technology.
Dvara KGFS intends to on-board over 40,000 retail agents across the operating districts in the next 3 years who would be using its agent app KGFS Mitra, to offer a wide array of services including Mobile & DTH Recharge, payment of Water, Electricity & LPG Bills, Bus & Train Ticket Booking, Domestic Money Transfer Cash withdrawals & Balance Enquiry using AEPS (Aadhar Enabled Payment System) and many more apart from customer being able to avail & service Dvara KGFS offerings- loan, savings, insurance & investment products through these Digital Agents. The Digital Agents are typically small kirana store owners located in the middle of the village & this solution would act as an additional income source to these small retailers. The application will soon be added with features to accept digital payments using UPI & Aadhar Pay so that merchants are able accept all their payments through digital mode.
Mr. Joby C O, CEO, Dvara KGFS comments, “We are excited about the acquisition of TransactNow. The team and technology will help us to scale up our Digital channel – a network of agents offering all our products with great amount of transaction convenience to customers in the close proximity of their village. We are hoping that this initiative would help customers avoid travel during the pandemic and avail all financial services in their village. KGFS Digital, the new channel led by Mr. Sathishkumar, will start scaling up the agent network very soon.”
Commenting on the development, Mr. LVLN Murty, Deputy CEO, Dvara KGFS said, “We are happy to see the kirana store owners become our digital agents for the same. They have eased out operations by helping us with the execution at the ground level & becoming our extended hands at the village level and we are able to truly provide door step services to our customers. The response at which rural people are adapting to these digital transformations is commendable and this progress gives us hope that even the rural India is heading towards a technology driven section of the society.”
Mr. Sathiskumar, CEO, Transact Nexus Tech Pvt Ltd commented, “There is a huge potential for financial services in rural India which remains untapped because of the reach. We decided to help Dvara KGFS to tap that by developing a software which will help the rural population carry out all their financial transactions on digital mode through the agent network. Dvara KGFS’s great rural reach will help millions of people to carry out financial transactions now digitally in close proximity through the agent network.”
