ACI Worldwide is ready to exploit the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transaction opportunity in India after making a strategic investment in Mumbai-based Mindgate Solutions, India’s leading digital payments company and the country’s UPI market leader.
UPI is a mobile-based, real-time payments platform managed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which enables all bank account holders in India to send and receive money from their smartphones with a single, simple identifier.
According to the NPCI, the total number of transactions for UPI – now the second most common method of digital payment in India – reached approximately 800 million in March 2019, up from 178 million in March 2018.
As part of the investment, for which financial details were not disclosed, ACI and Mindgate will deliver a joint real-time payments solution that combines ACI’s proven Universal Payments software solutions with Mindgate’s digital overlay services.
It will be offered to banks, financial intermediaries and merchants in India and other international markets via an on-premise, public cloud or hosted model.
“Since its launch by NPCI in 2016, UPI has achieved incredible growth due to its ease-of-use and convenience,” said AP Hota, former CEO of NPCI. “Indeed, India is leading the global real-time and digital payments revolution, and we are seeing other markets implementing similar end-to-end solutions to drive payments modernization.
“The combination of ACI and Mindgate will support the continued global adoption of real-time and digital payments, while helping to drive UPI as it becomes the dominant Indian retail payments method.”
George Sam, Co-founder of Mindgate Solutions, added: “We have long admired ACI, a real-time payments pioneer with a long track record of success in India and across the world.
“Our alliance will result in a joint solution that is future-proof, flexible and scalable. The combination of ACI’s proven switch capability along with Mindgate’s overlay services, flexibility and agility will empower banks, merchants and intermediaries to fully capitalize on UPI’s extraordinary growth.”
“We are very excited to join forces with Mindgate,” said Phil Heasley, President and CEO at ACI. “Their strong and talented team develops and delivers cutting-edge solutions and services, and we look forward to embarking on this real-time payments journey with them.
“The global real-time and digital payments transaction opportunity is vast, and with the Mindgate and ACI alliance, we are well-positioned to capitalize on this growth opportunity—providing to banks, corporates, merchants and payment intermediaries the world’s leading real-time payments offering.”
