Fintech Unicorn Slice Receives Prepaid Payment Licence From RBI

The Indian card fintech & unicorn company Slice has received PPI License from the RBI. Slice will allow all the new user base (teenagers) to spend up to ₹10K per month.

Slice, a fintech unicorn, has been granted a prepaid payment instrument license (PPI) by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

According to the Economic Times, sources claimed that Slice had received the PPI license of RBI and its product was live with select users. They hope to attract more Slice users.

Also Read: Top 10 Fintech Companies In India That Every Indian Should Know

Slice is planning to offer PPI accounts to teenagers with minimum customer knowledge (KYC), according to the sources. This is in an effort to increase its user base and reach new customers. 

Although it had originally planned to take on nearly 20% of its users, Slice is now likely to add more customers after receiving the PPI license.

The fintech startup will encourage this new user base (of teens) to spend up to INR 10K each month. 

It will also adhere to RBI’s guidelines which allow small PPI players to charge up to INR 10,000 per monthly and not more than INR 1.2 Lakh in a fiscal year.

This development comes months after RBI issued a June notification prohibiting non-banking financial corporations (NBFCs), from offering credit on personal property insurance (PPI) to customers (of fintech companies).

Before the RBI’s notification fintech players used partners with registered NBFCs with PPI license and offered credit facility to customers through these NBFCs.

Rajan Bajaj founded the fintech unicorn in 2016. It offers credit cards to young people, especially millennials without credit histories.

Slice had shared its plans to offer UPI services to existing and new customers back in May. 

Slice claimed that it had 10 million customers on its waitlist at the time and wanted to join the platform. It also planned to allow Near Field Communication (NFC), contactless payments via the app.

Also Read: Top 10 Best Payment Apps for Money Transfer and Digital Wallets

It secured $50 million in Series C funding from Tiger Global in June. Insight Partners, Moore Strategic Ventures and GMO VenturePartners participated in the round.

It had previously offered an ESOP buyback in February of this year, worth INR 65 Cr ($8.6Mn), to approximately 60 employees who were either former or current.

The central bank has granted PPI licenses to Mufin Finance and Cashfree as well as MSwipe, OmniCard, MSwipe, MSwipe, MSwipe, and MSwipe in the past few months.

By 2025, the country’s fintech market will be worth $1.3 trillion. Lending-Tech is one sub-sector that will capture 32% of the $616 billion by 2025 as per surveys.