CityCash CEO speaks to Republic; Reveals how 'Tap-to-Pay cards' will make wallets obsolete

One cannot fail to mention the personal finance and banking sector when talking about startups' impact, with FinTech being one of the most disruptive trends over the last 2 decades. Not long ago people had to physically visit banks for money transactions but now things have changed. ATMs, Net Banking and digital mode of payments have made things easier. However, there are some who believe that various aspects of this can be improved further. That's where CityCash comes in.

CityCash is a startup that believes that the current system is not geared towards micropayments. According to them, the system is equipped to handle high-value transactions but probably not the kind of transaction that people deal with on a daily basis- bus tickets, grocery stores etc. Republic World's Ankit Prasad recently spoke to Citycash's founder & CEO Vineet Toshniwal who elaborated on Citycash's offerings and future plans.

What was the inspiration behind Citycash?

"After travelling all over the world, one finds there is an abundance of integrated transit and payment cards, like Hong Kong has Octopus card and London has Oyster cards- where the micropayment ecosystem has completely seeded by these cards. Similarly, CityCash uses NFC (Near-field communication) technology deployed in its cards which makes them multipurpose and helps in 'Tap to Pay'. This is also the company's pitch toward Aatmanirbhar Bharat- raising the ease of living for the common man," Vineet Toshniwal says. 

CityCash - Tap to Pay

"Firstly, the city authorities teamed up with these card companies and they launched the card for the transit payments. Entire transit sectors in those cities went digital completely and people also switched their habits from cash to first digital payment cards. Once they got used to making payments for transit they started using the same instrument for small value retail also like small grocery shops, 7/11s, coffee shops etc- and later it became a de facto cash instrument for people to Tap and Pay. Every world city has a card like this but I was amazed that not even one single city in India has such a card. So, unfortunately in India people on a daily basis for small value payments, people are forced to pay in cash- as there is no gear to handle small value payments," Toshniwal adds.

How to equip people with the card and having a point of sale (POS) terminal where the card can be used?

'The phone is the solution'

"Technology has evolved very fast with time and yesterday what used to be constrained will not be now or moving forward. Earlier, it used to be a card and people were tapping it on the POS (Point-of-Sale) terminal. But now the phone has become a card- It can be downloaded on phones electronically as most of the phones are now coming with NFC chips. Jio (Reliance) is proposing to launch with Google - affordable phones for $50 which will already have an installed NFC chip- that will transform Phones into a card. Same phones become a POS also- it has been launched as a soft-POS solution where the Android phone itself downloads the app and anyone can register themselves as a merchant and then start accepting the payments. So no machine is needed to make the payment, just have a card or the virtual card on the phone and by tapping phones the transactions can be done," stated CityCash's founder and CEO.

Enrollment in Citycash:

For Consumers: People can download the virtual card, KYC can be done on their own by the Aadhaar card and then the consumer will receive an OTP. The card can be recharged by directly linking to the bank accounts or by UPI apps. You can also walk into a CityCash centre, purchase the card by using Mobile OTP on the spot.

For Merchants: Download the app, do the minimum KYC and fill in the basic information required as per RBI norms and then you will be activated as a merchant and can accept the payments.

Citycash's CEO Vineet Toshniwal reveals the company's origin story

He describes, "I spent a decade in Asia based out of Hong Kong and Shanghai and when I looked at the global scenario these Octopus and Oyster cards were doing very well in the market. In India, there was nothing of this sort, so I decided to start CityCash. Now initially we have to do a lot of pitch work to meet various Bus corporations - because we always wanted a transit corporation an anchor- Transit is the best use-case of making offline 'Tap and Pay' payments and as it is in the daily services that people get hassled for cash. We pitched to all the bus systems, especially Maharashtra State Bus system (MSRTC)- which is the largest bus system in the country with 20,000 buses. They bought the idea. So, for the first time, we introduced a co-branded card with the Maharashtra State Road Bus Corporation and started marketing the entire card in the state with the help of thousands of agents and we observed massive uptake."

Describing the usership, he said, "In just 6 months of pre-COVID, we registered almost 3.7 million consumers lining up and there is tremendous demand among students and senior citizens. There is no barrier to technology adoption and for the corporation, it is a wonderful solution- not only they save the cost of cash and the government has all the data."

How Citycash managed to emerge stronger from the pandemic, including a fundraise

Vineet Toshniwal elaborated on how CityCash utilized the lockdown period: 

"During COVID the company did face some challenges as the lockdown hit us as a Nuclear bomb- in our case business stopped because the bus services stopped. For the period of 3 months, we observed zero revenue and no transactions. But we didn't waste the crisis; during this time as a team we decided to up our offerings, double up our messaging to the government and public bus corporations that this is the time to go completely digital as people will want a Cashless & Contactless solution," he said 

"CityCash developed an entire stack (of offerings) for the public bus corporations in terms of taking it digital. For the first time in India, we launched a unified ticketing solution on a single device in the hands of the conductor- ticketing went digital, all modes of payments were acceptable. At the same time, the bus corporation had real-time data and live location of the number of passengers- all came from a single device in the hands of the conductor. This solution was appreciated and we won many awards as well. As a result, we reached out to many investors who showed interest. ICICI Bank came forward and agreed to pick up a minority stake in City cash and also attracted various other investors. Now we are very well funded and we looking forward to expanding PAN-India in partnership with ICICI Bank," he explained.

Expansion & Future Plans 

"Apart from Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, all corporation from South India and Pune Bus corporation is exactly in a similar state. These are large corporations so definitely the change management is very gradual and process is long. But now people want to move towards digitisation and a year from now most of these corporations will be seen adopting this technology," Vineet Toshniwal said

"We are close to 4 million consumers, but if we keep expanding in the current growth rate, in the coming 2 to 3 years we will hit a user base of about 20-30 million in the market. Our goal is very simple- every Indian should have a micro-credit card and start using it in public transit. The ease of living will revolutionise," he said.

Will cash in wallets be obsolete soon? CityCash's CEO Vineet Toshniwal answers

Vineet Toshniwal described that the cash pyramid is inverted - "in the next 5 to 7 years small value cash will be abolished completely as everything will be moved to digital," he predicts, adding an interesting exception - "What will be actually remaining in cash is where the transaction needs to be anonymous. In the next 5 years, we will move to 100% digital."