Groww receives RBI approval to operate as payment aggregator

Fintech unicorn Groww has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a payment aggregator. The firm has joined several fintechs which recently received similar approval from the central bank.

RBI has granted the licence to Groww Pay, the UPI payments platform of broking firm Groww. The licence will allow the Tiger Global and Peak XV Partners-backed firm to facilitate e-commerce transactions through its UPI app.

Launched in July last year, Groww’s UPI app allows bill payment services such as making loan and credit card repayments, paying electricity and water bills and DTH recharge, among others.

In October last year, Groww surpassed its arch rival Zerodha for the first time in terms of active users. Further, Groww ended 2023 with 7.5 million monthly active users whereas Zerodha and AngelOne had 6.7 million and 5.3 million MAUs, respectively.

In terms of valuation, Zerodha stood at the top with $3.6 billion followed by Upstox and Groww with $3.4 and $3 billion, respectively.

Last week, Groww’s Mutual Fund also received SEBI’s approval to launch the Nifty Non-Cyclical Consumer Index Fund through a new fund offering (NFO).

Groww registered more than 260% jump in its operating revenue to Rs 1,277 crore in FY23, according to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible. The company also posted Rs 448.7 crore profit against Rs 239 crore loss in FY22.

Like several fintechs, Groww is also planning to move its domicile to India. Entrackr exclusively reported the development in May last year. Other companies on the list include KreditBee, Pine Labs, Groww, Razorpay, Meesho and Zepto.

Along with Groww, book keeping app and lending platform Khatabook also received payment aggregator licence from RBI. In March last year, RBI granted in-principle approval to as many as 32 entities including Khatabook to operate as an online payment aggregator.

Most recently, PayU received in-principle approval from RBI to operate as a payment aggregator. Besides PayU and Groww, fintech firms Razorpay, Cashfree, Open, EnKash, Juspay, and Infibeam have received PA licence from the apex banking body.