Founded in 2017 by Mitesh Thakker, Bhuj-based startup MissCallPay aims to make P2P and ecommerce transactions easier on feature phones and in areas without good internet infrastructure.
MissCallPay aims to provide UPI-based payment solutions for the Bharat population or Non-tech savvy people using feature phones. Founded by Mitesh Thakker, MissCallPay has introduced voice-based payment solutions using the mechanism of 'Miss Call'. The startup is expecting to commercialize the launch in December 2021 and is already in talks with banks to launch the 1st voice-based payment solution for their customers.
IdeapreneurIndia interviewed Mr. Mitesh Thakker (Founder, MissCallPay) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. Know how MissCall was started, its funding details challenges faced, future plans, and more.
(Mitesh Thakker, Founder – MissCallPay )
MissCallPay Company Highlights
Startup Name - MissCallPay
Founder - Mitesh Thakker
Headquarters - Mumbai
Founded - 2017
Industry - Fintech
Website - misscallpay.com
1. When were you founded?
Similar to every startup that begins in two phases: idea and realization, MissCallPay is no exclusion to the trend! The idea of MissCallPay came to me in the year January 2017, following the events of demonetization. However, it wasn’t until September of that year that my idea to simplify payments was finally established as MissCallPay in Kutch, Gujarat.
2. How many employees do you have?
Currently, we are a strong team of some 10 members who are focused on the launch and seamless operations of our upcoming application.
3. How do you get an idea to start this venture?
The idea behind MissCallPay came to me around January 2017, following the events of the demonetization phase when I was travelling to my Native village in the Kutch district of Gujarat. During my journey there, the chaos with people standing in serpentine queues outside ATM’s and banks was quite unsettling for me. That specific incident proved to be a major accelerator in shaping the idea into a product.
Following the incident, I attended the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, a few days later and got a clarion call listening to the motivational speech of PM Modi. Following the series of events, I decided to venture into FinTech and realized the potential of financial inclusion for a payment solution that works without the internet. Following the idea, we worked on the product using awarded patents and thus MissCallPay was born.
4. Is the company funded?
Yes, we’re currently angel-funded and plan to raise Series A funding over the next 5-7 months.
5. Briefly explain the business?
MissCallPay is a concept which also happens to be India's first voice-based payment fintech startup running on UPI. A pioneer in bringing voice-based digital payment solutions to the rural and urban under-served population of Bharat, we tend to bridge the gap between the cashless economy and the digitally illiterate part of India.
MissCallPay makes UPI based mobile payments ultra-simple over a feature phone, smartphone or voice bot. Users can transact in their local language, can make payments remotely using missed call features. The highlight of this payment solution is one can take assistance from anyone, a true innovation that adapts to user behaviour rather than users adopting the innovation.
The platform uses Phone-as-a-token authentication, a patented feature to make an ultra-simple and secured digital payment solution for the masses.
6. What is the future Plan?
The future plan of our startup is to include the digitally literate masses into the less-cash society in India and partner with various Fintech's, MFI’s , NBFC’s, Banks and other Institutions to bring the benefits of financial inclusion and formal economy to the underserved billions in our country.
7. How different from others?
The fact that we are a feature-based payment platform that cuts off one of the most primary elements of modern-day transactions (the internet), is what makes us unique in my opinion. Further, I’ve noticed that a majority of the software applications are limited to English as their standard language and this is where MissCallPay is different !
Our application follows the native language of the user, thus eliminating the need for users to get bound to a specific language, even our user-experience does away with need of reading or writing the local language on mobile devices, as the transactions get done by just listening and speaking skills of a number literate audience, also we do away with need of proximity required to perform transactions as it is required for QR Codes and POS Devices.
8. What’s your revenue?
Do not want to comment for now.
9. How fast are you growing?
Do not want to comment for now.
10. Where did you get the idea for this company?
Already explained!
11. What’s your background? Did your grandmother have the problem you’re trying to solve? Did you? the skills you needed to start the business?
I belong to a humble, middle-class family who is heavily inspired by his father. Talking about my source of information, my father used to be a street vendor on the busy streets of Bhuleshwar in Mumbai who also drove a taxi to make ends meet for the family. Interestingly, his hard work paid off as he now owns a textile business that employs 300+ people.
This Entrepreneurial rags to riches story of my father motivated me to dare to think big and never give up easily in life. His dedication and hard work also drew my attention to the hardships faced by migrant workers and the unprivileged in society.
Academically, I did my MBA graduation from SP Jain and product management training from Blackbolt Consulting USA. With over 21 years of experience and six patents to my credit until now, I’ve held expertise in marketing, selling, and building IT products in startup environments.
12. Who’s on your leadership team and what’s their background?
Do not want to comment for now.
13. Successful in this space? What’s unique about your leadership team?
Do not want to comment for now.
14. Why is your team perfect to solve the problems you’re tackling?
Do not want to comment for now.
15. How did you get here?
It has been a journey of ups and down’s for MissCallPay. For a company that initiated its operations around 2017, we’ve spent around 5 years making the most of research and development around our operations. Interestingly, the years have been fruitful for us in terms of awards & recognitions.
Here’s a peek at what we were able to achieve all this while!
a) MissCallPay was the Winner of Bill Gates Grand Challenge for feature phone payments 2020. It received the cash prize of $ 30,000 and has been piloted by NPCI and PSU Bank of India in support of the Gates Foundation.
b) It was shortlisted as a Top-50 finalist for social impact innovation at IIGP 2018, India Innovation Growth Program 2.0
c) Fintegrate 2019 awards MissCallPay as one of the leading startups in Fintech space
d)MissCallPay was recognized at the Maharashtra Startup Week, 2019 organized by MSInS and won the reward of Rs.15 lakhs for its innovation among #Fintech Start-ups of 3200+
16. (If you’re a B2c startup) Who are some of your clients?
We are B2B2C, we work closely with Banks to enable the users to transact digitally ,
17. Who are your main competitors?
While every product is unique and comes with its own USP, my idea of competitors would be Tonetag, Gupshup , Eroute and Ultracash.. but I would like to refer to them as co-players rather than competitors as market is very big for any single player to cater to.
18. How are you different from the competition?
The answer would be the working process and principles of our applications! All the applications work differently, making all co-player brands unique, also we are working in diverse geography where the dialects change every 10 kilometers with so many behavioural challenges there can be no single solution that fits all bharat..
19. How much have you raised in total over how many rounds?
We’d like to keep that undisclosed.
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