BillDesk– Company Profile

BillDesk is an online payment gateway company offering a range of services such as online payments, bill presentment and bill management services. BillDesk connects banks, billers and customers, providing them an easy and secure way to carry out online transactions. BillDesk is preferred as a payment option by customers, as end-users are not charged any fee for online transactions. Any applicable fee is charged only to the respective biller.

Since its inception in 2000, BillDesk has grown manifold over the years. BillDesk’s reliable payment gateway is currentlybeing used by various banks as well as top organizations from varied industry sectors such as utilities, e-commerce, education, financial services, insurance and telecom.

History:

The idea for BillDesk came to one of the founders, MN Srinivasu, in 2000 when he realized the problems being faced by people in paying various bills. At that time, neither banks nor the billers had any dedicated platform that can allow people to pay their bills online. While working at consulting firm Arthur Andersen, Srinivasu met Ajay Kaushal and Karthik Ganapathy. The trio started thinking about launching a new platform that would act as a bridge between banks, billers and consumers. BillDesk was subsequently launched in 2000.

Initially, it was tough to convince billers and businesses to move to online payment system. But the founderspersisted and after 4-5 years, their idea hadtransformed into a flourishingbusiness.BillDesk has huge future potential, as online payments in India are still a small percentage of the overall value of transactions in the country.

Funding:

BillDesk has received investments worth $241.4 million from four rounds of funding. Top investors include Temasek, General Atlantic, Clearstone Ventures and TA Associates.

Acquisitions:

To improve synergies with banks and merchants, BillDesk acquired Loylty Rewardz Management in FY16. Based in Mumbai, Loylty Rewardz was the largest loyalty business company in India at that time.

Competitors:

While BillDesk was one of its kind when it started, competition has increasedsignificantly over the years. BillDesk currently competes with other payment gateway companies such as TechProcess, Razorpay, PayU, Paytm, and CCAvenue.

About the Founders:

BillDesk was founded by MN Srinivasu, Ajay Kaushal and Karthik Ganapathy. Srinivasu is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad. Prior to launching BillDesk, he had worked with top organizations such as ITC Limited and Arthur Andersen. Co-founder Ajay Kaushal had studied at IIT Madras and IIM Lucknow. He currently serves as a director at BillDesk. Karthik Ganapathy is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and had worked at Arthur Andersen prior to founding BillDesk. He currently serves as the vice president at IndiaIdeas.com Limited, the parent company of BillDesk.