Razorpay’s acquisition of card terminal startup Ezetap and Pine Labs’s payment gateway launch signal a turf war.
The humble point-of-sale machine has come a long way over the past few years. From a device that scanned credit and debit cards, the modern version has a touchscreen and can process multiple modes of payment, offer credit and even consolidate bills for a retailer.
A decade ago, retailers would have to shell out anywhere between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 to buy a PoS machine and pay a few thousand rupees as maintenance charges. Similarly, online businesses would have to wait weeks for their banks to approve a payment gateway service on their website.
The costs of setting up …
Advait is a financial journalist and a former writer at The Morning Context. Here, he wrote on India’s banks, the wider financial services industry and the fintech ecosystem. He has previously worked with the Economic and Political Weekly, Business Standard, BloombergQuint and MediaNama, where he covered everything from the Reserve Bank of India to fintech policy.
Writer
advait@mailtmc.com
Mumbai