Indian Payments Tech Company Oxigen Seeking $200 Million To Expand: Report

Oxigen Services India Pvt. Ltd., a payments-technology company, is seeking between $150 million and $200 million to expand its operations in the country, according to a Press Trust of India (PTI) report carried by the Mint newspaper Sunday.

The firm provides an online and mobile wallet application, with which users can make instant money transfers, pay their phone bills, recharge their satellite-television subscriptions and so on. The mobile app is available for download on both Android and iOS smartphones.

Oxigen will use the money to launch a so-called payments bank, for which it is seeking a license from the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, PTI reported, citing company Chairman Pramod Saxena. A payments bank in India can’t lend money, but it can accept deposits and provide remittances. Such banks are being allowed in India as the nation moves to include more rural areas under a so-called financial-inclusion mandate.

With a payments bank, Oxigen, based in Gurgaon, near New Delhi, can tap the lucrative remittances market. Last year, Indians working overseas sent home $73 billion in remittances, and the market is growing by 7 percent a year, PTI reported.

Oxigen is also expanding its support services to cover more regions across eastern and central India, and it will hire 1,500 staff members to build up its operations and improve its product, PTI reported.