Gupshup is a smart messaging platform that has won the Grand Challenge that would help them enable the payments on some of the feature phones in India. The Grand Challenge was launched in 2019 in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
It was also a collaborative effort with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and CIIE.CO.
The competition witnessed over 750 applications sent in by the innovators from across the globe. The same was for providing solutions towards a payment system for the feature phones in India.
Gupshup won the challenge, followed by Minkville and Tonetag.
As per the solution sent in by Gupshup, the payment system allows the impoverished communities in India to have direct access to the financial products and services, helping them bring their footprints into the digital world.
The best thing about this payment solution is the fact that it works with or without data by making use of the SMS network. The inventors have assured that the whole process is completely secure with multiple levels of encryption and further authentication to prevent risks of fraud.
“The grand challenge supports the foundation’s continuous effort to ensure that the poor have access to the relevant formal financial products & services that they can use to build more prosperous and secure lives for themselves and their communities,” said Pawan Bakhshi, India Lead, Financial Services for the poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Some of the winning technologies through this Grand Challenge have the potential to provide with fairless easy and secure payment options to over 400-500 million people across India.
“Gupshup’s vision is to use secure and smart messaging to enable rich and delightful experiences across a wide range of categories including payments and ecommerce,” said BeerudSheth, CEO of Gupshup.
While the use of Gupshup has been very prevalent in the smartphone and the users of the same across India, the new technology will allow similar services for the feature phones as well.
In the 750 applications that the Grand Challenge received, majority of them were from banks, telecom companies, and even several startups.
Alongside Gupshup, around nine other companies made it to the final shortlist that was reported on April 16. This was done after scores of deliberations from the panel of experts which then finalised the final 9 who presented their ideas in front of the panel of experts.
The winners were awarded with a grand prize of USD 50,000, 30,000 and 20,000. The final winners will also receive pilot support in India from NPCI.
