Exclusive: Fampay launches UPI app Namaspay for foreign travelers in India

Fampay by Trio has been looking at avenues to make money, and the firm has launched a unified payment interface (UPI)-powered payment app -Namaspay for foreign travelers in India.

Namaspay is a separate app which allows travelers across continents including Europe, Africa, Australia, and the US. The app charges Rs 1,650 as one time registration fees along with 4% and 1% on money loading and withdrawal, respectively.

Namaspay seems to be a well positioned offering as the UPI-powered payment apps have almost replaced cash in the urban regions. The NPCI-owned payment railroad processed nearly 15 billion transactions in August.

Since UPI is accepted almost everywhere and weeds out cash carrying requirements,  there is definitely a case for it to offer a version for foreign tourists. More importantly, UPI remains a negligible contributor to revenues or profitability to the players associated with it. A Namaspay kind of app for foreign travelers has sizable potential to fill the profitability gap fonally. To a large extent, this [UPI for foreigners] is a white space in the UPI as Cheq is probably the only competition for Namaspay.

For context, India received 92 million foreign tourists in 2023. Most of these tourists either use plastic money or cash for payments. Hence, there seems to be an opportunity for players like Namaspay and Cheq.

However, experts outline that if this [UPI for foreigners] would emerge as a lucrative space, large players including PhonePe and Paytm will push their offerings as well. Namaspay appears to be an attempt by Fampay’s parent to explore more use-cases around UPI ecosystem. More importantly, there is no predicting how NPCI will react to the move to monetise it more strongly, with every likelihood of it trying to set benchmarks there as well.

Fampay which was started as teen-centric neo-banking platform but it pivoted to become a full-fledged UPI app (like PhonePe and Paytm). The company blew over Rs 200 crore to build a fintech offering for the population below 18 years of age. The firm, which raised $38 million in series A round, reported less than Rs 15 crore in revenue in its lifetime.

Fampay processed 52 million transactions via UPI in July. The company has demonstrated rapid growth as it managed to climb to top 10 list within a year of full-fledged pivot. Namaspay is owned by Pehe via its subsidiary TrioTech where Fampay’s co-founders Sambhav Jain and Kush Taneja are listed as owners, according to its regulatory filings.