Sequoia-backed fintech platform Aspora, which lets the Indian diaspora send money back to India, is launching a new feature for users to pay bills. This means Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) can pay utility bills or recharge their mobile prepaid plans for their family.
The startup said that until now, users had to either transfer the money to their Indian accounts or ask someone to handle the bills for them. The other option for them was to use their foreign cards and try and pay bills while facing high charges and payment failures.
Aspora has hooked up to the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), which handles bill payments in India, using Yes Bank’s domestic pipeline. Through this system, it has enabled payment for more than 22,000 billers in India, ranging from electricity providers such as BSES and BESCOM, broadband providers like Jio and Airtel, and loan payments for major banks.
The startup said it’s not charging any fees for these payments, and the users get the best exchange rates to pay the bill directly in foreign currency.
“For millions of Indians living overseas, paying bills in India has always been unnecessarily complex – involving transfers, delays, and double fees. Aspora has now solved this large-scale problem at the tap of a button”, Aspora founder and CEO Parth Garg told TechCrunch in a recent phone interview.
Garg said bill payments might reduce remittances, but only by 4% to 5% of total transfers. Garg believes giving users the ability to pay bills will create long-term stickiness.
“Today, the goal …