FSS and Airpay to bring MSMEs onto a digital payments ecosystem

By Edil Corneille

FSS (Financial Software and Systems) and Airpay have strategically collaborated with the aim to accelerate electronic payments acceptance by micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). This is a strategy to bring banks and payment aggregators onto FSS Embark, an omnichannel acquirer platform, to build an inclusive digital payment services ecosystem that efficiently caters to the MSME segment. FSS is a provider of payment products and a payment processor. Airpay is an omnichannel financial services platform.

ALSO, READ: FSS launches ‘Embark’ to digitally strengthen MENA MSMEs

Krishnan Srinivasan, Global Chief Revenue Officer, FSS articulated, “The COVID-19 pandemic has made digital the new normal and the ability to participate in digital commerce is crucial for MSME survival and growth. We are excited to partner with Airpay for FSS Embark to bring reliable digital payment services to MSMEs. The collaboration helps us gain immediate access to an extensive MSME network and we would benefit from Airpay’s strong technology tools and merchant support network on the field, enabling us to rapidly scale our footprint.”

MSMEs remain underserved when it comes to having access to cost-efficient digital payments. This is due to the diverse and fragmented nature of the market segment as well as low profitability in relation to the costs of acquiring and servicing these merchants. Under the umbrella of this partnership, FSS and Airpay bring complementary strengths to improve MSME access to digital services. Airpay would be responsible for the first-mile enablement – for acquiring, onboarding, technology enablement, and providing ongoing support to MSMEs – whilst FSS would be responsible for last-mile single-window transaction processing.

ALSO, READ: AirPay FinTech integrates with AsiaPay; Merchants can now accept Alipay, WeChat Pay & UnionPay

Kunal Jhunjhunwala CEO, Airpay emphasised, “MSMEs are at the heart of India’s economy, and are the hardest hit by the pandemic, as they lack, technology and tools that will help them sell in the digital marketplace. Our partnership with FSS helps make the entire transaction processing more reliable and efficient. It would enable us to expand services to a large base of merchants by offering them a range of innovative digital payment acceptance services — online, instore and mobile — to participate and compete in a digital-first economy.”