You forgot your wallet at home? Don’t sweat - MobiKwik has got you covered!

Long gone are the days when we were wondering what it looks like to not carry a wallet everywhere we go. Nowadays, every second person on the street has an e-wallet. But we don’t just pay our bills online - we can even postpone the payment!

Although the UK has been a leader in the field of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), this trend has spread fast all over the world! MobiKwik is now one of the most respected fintech companies.

Specifically targeting the Indian market, this company started off on Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku’s idea and desire to ease the lives of their fellow citizens.

The ride to this destination, however, was a bumpy one. Stick with us and find out more about the journey this couple took to give us this amazing feature!

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Two Bright Minds

Even as a young girl, Upasana Taku was seen as an intelligent lady who would one day do great things.

Right after high school, she got accepted into the Jalandhar National Institute of Technology, earning herself a Bachelor of Technology degree in industrial engineering. It wasn’t easy working in a field that was mostly comprised of men.

Nonetheless, she fought her way to the top by getting a degree from Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering. Being part of a minority in a school of such caliber meant that she had to push even more and work twice as hard.

Finally, all the hard work paid off when Upasana landed her first job at HSBC in San Diego. Her feisty nature was quick to push everyone to the side and raise her to the top, once again.

On the other side of the world, Bipin Preet Singh was working at his first job at Intel. His childhood was a very common one; being the last-born son in an Indian family didn’t bring him much excitement, since Bipin was looking for something extraordinary even from a young age. Bipin completed his education at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, getting himself a Bachelor of Technology degree in electrical engineering, specializing in hardware.

Young Bipin was minding his business working for Intel until one day, a mutual friend introduced him to Upasana. As time went by, they became good friends that shared similar interests and… the rest is history!

The 180° Turn

Upasana loved her job in the USA. From her first one at HSBC, she managed to climb even higher on the professional ladder, landing a position at PayPal. This was where she started understanding the way payment systems work, assessing risk and detecting fraus, how to provide the best user experience, etc.

Soon, Upasana discovered that being a corporate busy bee was definitely not on her wish list.

Young Upasana was going through a rough patch, having found herself torn between decisions - should she turn a new page and head back to India, or let the force of habit get the best of her? As soon as she voiced her intention of leaving and going back to India, people close to her started opposing.

Her family didn’t approve of the swift change and were convinced she was making the biggest mistake of her life. Was she, though?

Bipin, on the other hand, did things differently. Since his family wasn’t wealthy, he took on the role of providing as much as he could. His skills were so good that landed him a job at NVIDIA, followed by a position at Freescale Semiconductor Inc., later on.

Even though he was paid quite a lot, Bipin still felt like something was missing. So, instead of going for a master’s degree, like many of his peers, he decided to take the future into his own hands and invest his money in a startup.

However, Bipin’s passion for starting up something on his own wasn’t met with enthusiasm. Just like Upasana’s parents, Bipin’s parents too weren’t delighted with his choice, considering he had a steady job with a great income. No matter the hurdles he had to jump over, Bipin wasn’t giving up on his dream!

The moment he was introduced to Upasana, they immediately clicked!

Both of them were passionate about helping the Indian economy, so there wasn’t much wiggle room when Bipin shared his idea with Upasana - she immediately supported him and jumped on board to creating something new!

It Began With Prepaid Phones

Bipin was working a well-paid job and doing research when he discovered that a huge number of people were using prepaid phones. This was when a question popped into his head: “How do people pay for that?”

The only logical solution was that they would have to go to a store and add credit to their phones. Having in mind that this was 2008, the world was still working with the many possibilities the Internet had to offer.

Online payment was becoming more and more in trend, so Bipin wondered why online payment couldn’t be used with prepaid phones as well. After considerable deliberations, the idea for MobiKwik emerged!

In 2009, Upasana returned to India, and that was the year these two co-founded MobiKwik. It started small - first as an e-wallet app used to pay bills, add credit to your phone’s balance, etc.

Upasana and Bipin only had one employee and were facing many challenges. People weren’t familiar with online payment, plus, there already existed big rivals they had to fend, like Google and Paytm.

But despite everything, Upasana and Bipin pushed through it and emerged victoriously. From here, MobiKwik grew to be one of the best digital payment companies on the Indian market!

Nowadays, it doesn’t limit its services to just being an e-wallet. MobiKwik is the biggest provider of BNPL services in India. E-commerce shopping, food delivery, pharmacies, gas stations, and peer-to-peer payments are just the tip of the iceberg!

Their most recent obstacle is connected to a hacker group that is deemed to have stolen the identities of several users. MobiKwik was quick to respond that it would hire a third party to conduct a forensic data security audit.

The World of Money

MobiKwik started with only a $250,000 investment but was quick to reach an additional $5 million. By now, there have been 16 funding rounds, securing MobiKwik around $165.5 million.

With 27 investors under its belt, MobiKwik closed the Series G round of its funding in June 2021. The most recent investors are Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Dosch Pharmaceuticals.

Its rise to fame was so big that in 2018 MobiKwik acquired Clearfunds - an online discount robo-advisor! After getting the green light from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in October 2021, this company set its sails towards the IPO market.

The initial idea was for MobiKwik to appear on NASDAQ on 4 November, however, due to difficulties with finding foreign investors that would accept the company’s primary value, MobiKwik has decided to postpone the IPO until 2022.

Up, Up and Above

Starting with one employee was hard, but right now, MobiKwik has around 500 employees. Their current headquarters are located is in Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

It’s astonishing how a company like this, which started in a period when people didn’t even dare to pay online, has now become one of the most renowned on the market. Even when nobody believed in their idea, Bipin and Upasana were convinced that it was the way to go!

Now, MobiKwik comes with a mobile version and has partnered up with Uber and Google. What’s more, MobiKwik turned the tables and became an investor financing other companies. But this is not where their story ends!

This power couple is working towards many new ways that would improve the day-to-day life of modern people. As the world changes, so does MobiKwik.