Mobile VAS and Internet products company Spice Digital has launched a new mobile wallet called SpiceMudra which will focus on domestic remittances, reports the Economic Times. Earlier in May, Spice Digital (a subsidiary of Spice Mobility) received its a semi-closed pre-paid payments wallet license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The ET report also added that Spice Digital’s 3,000 retail outlets will help with the remittances using the wallet and that the company plans to expand to other services such as bill payments, mobile recharges and ticket booking. Speaking to the publication, Spice Connect CEO Sakat Agarwal also said that the wallet will be integrated with Spice’s handsets to enable easier payments for customers.
“We are seeing an average ticket size of Rs 3500 per person and remittances of Rs 1 crore in a day. Customers can deposit cash at any of these outlets, which will then be remitted to their family or friend’s bank accounts instantly,” Agarwal added.
Other wallets in recent times
Mobile commerce marketplace and digital wallet Paytm announced its plans to add movie and entertainment tickets on its platform later this week. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chairman of Paytm said that it was planning to create a marketplace for entertainment tickets with deals and offers.
In recent times, online recharge and couponing service Freecharge launched its wallet with private sector lender YES Bank. India’s third largest private sector lender Axis Bank also launched a mobile app which integrates wallets, banking, payments and shopping called Lime.
The RBI also granted a wallet license to Eko India Financial Services, Card Pro Financial Services and Paul Fincap Private Limited. The RBI website shows that Eko Financial Services got its license in March 2015 and is valid up to March 2020. Card Pro Solutions and Paul Fincap’s licenses are valid up to June 2020 and were issued in June 2015.
In July, Telecom operator Aircel through its subsidiary, Aircel Smart Money Limited, secured five-year prepaid mobile wallet license from the RBI enabling them to provide mobile wallet services to its subscribers, as reported by the Economic Times. Aircel is the sixth operator to receive the wallet license after Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Reliance Jio, Idea Cellular and Tata DOCOMO.
Spice Mobility financials
For the quarter ended June 30, Spice Mobility’s mobile devices business continued to face losses, although to a lesser extent than before, and the segment posted a net loss before tax of Rs 13.85 crore compared to a loss of Rs 69.78 crore in the previous quarter.Year-on-year, the company’s losses widened as it reported a loss of Rs 3.34 crore the same quarter last year.The segment reported total revenues of Rs 431.8 crore for the quarter, registering a marginal 1.51% growth from Rs 425.38 crore the preceding quarter. On a year-on-year basis, the revenues declined by 13.3% from Rs 498.02 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
The revenue from Spice Mobility’s services business increased to Rs 58.52 crore for the quarter, up 25.68% from Rs 46.56 crore in the same quarter last year and up by 4.28% from Rs 56.12 crore in the preceding quarter. The profit before tax however decreased to Rs 1 crore for the quarter, down 21.26% from Rs 1.27 crore profit in the same quarter last year and down 78.26% from Rs 4.6 crore profit in the previous quarter.
