BharatPe Adds Sparkles to Festivals: Launches “Digital Gold” in India

BharatPe, India’s largest merchant payment company, today announced the launch of digital gold on its platform. The launch of this new category of fintech product is in line with the company’s commitment to offer the entire gamut of financial products to SMEs. Through this latest offering, BharatPe’s merchants will be able to buy and sell 99.5% purity, 24-carat gold. The merchants can choose to buy in rupees or grams, at any time of the day and from anywhere, by using the BharatPe app. The company has partnered with Safegold, a digital platform that allows customers to buy, sell and receive vaulted gold, to facilitate this. SafeGold has appointed IDBI Trusteeship Services to protect the interest of merchants with regard to their gold purchases. BharatPe aims to sell 6 kg of gold leading up to Diwali. 

The launch of ‘BharatPe Gold’ has been timed to add to the celebrations in this festive season. A merchant can start investing in gold for as low as Re. 1. The merchant can choose to pay via BharatPe balance or UPI, as per his preference. BharatPe will be adding credit/ debit cards as payment options in the near future. The merchant will have a real-time view of gold price linked with global markets on the BharatPe app. Post the purchase, gold will be added to the merchant’s ‘BharatPe Gold’ section. The merchant can also avail the benefit of GST tax input credit when they buy gold on the BharatPe app. The gold purchased is kept safely at the 100% insured lockers with Safegold, at no extra cost.  

Also, a merchant can check his Gold balance by viewing the Gold Locker section on the app. He can also opt for delivery of physical gold powered by Safegold, by choosing the relevant option in the Gold Locker section of the BharatPe app. If a merchant wants to sell gold, he can do that in a few seconds on the BharatPe app. While selling gold, he has to option of choosing BharatPe registered account or his bank account for the credit.  

Speaking on the launch, Mr. Suhail Sameer, Group President, BharatPe, said, “Gold is not only a preferred investment option in India, but is also considered to be an auspicious possession in the Indian homes. With festive season in full vigor, BharatPe offers the convenience of buying/ selling gold to its merchants via our app. The focus on the digital gold market is in sync with our overall vision to build BharatPe as the one-stop financial services platform for SMEs. At BharatPe, we build products for the merchants. We had received a number of requests from merchants to launch gold on our platform. We decided to partner with Safegold as gold purity and security is of utmost importance to us and to our merchants. We are already seeing great response and have sold 200 grams of gold on the day of the launch. We will be adding new features to this and aim to build digital gold as one of the key verticals in the near future. We are targeting selling 30 kg of gold in FY21.”  

About BharatPe 

BharatPe was co-founded by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani in 2018 with the vision to make financial inclusion a reality for Indian merchants. BharatPe launched India’s first UPI interoperable QR code, first ZERO MDR payment acceptance service, and first UPI payment backed merchant cash advance service. In 2020, post-Covid, BharatPe also launched India’s only ZERO MDR card acceptance terminals – BharatSwipe. Currently serving over 50 lakh merchants across 35 cities, the company has grown business 30x in 2019 and is a leader in UPI offline transactions, having processed 5 crore+ UPI transactions a month (annualized TPV of US$ 5+ Bn). The company has already facilitated disbursement of over Rs. 400 crores to its merchants since launch. BharatPe has raised US$ 142.5 million till date. The company’s list of marquee investors includes Beenext, Sequoia, SteadView Capital, Ribbit Capital, Coatue Management LLC, Insight Partners, and Amplo.