
Mswipe bets big on international expansion

Summary
Mswipe is expanding into Malaysia, Nepal, and the UK to boost its international business, which it aims to grow from 10% to 40% of revenue in three years, following successful pivots and higher margins in global markets.Alpha Wave Global-backed payments fintech Mswipe is expanding its international network into three new regions to take advantage of higher margins, said co-founder and chief executive Ketan Patel, following a series of pivots in the business and marginal growth in revenue in the last fiscal.
The company plans to expand into the UK, Malaysia, Nepal, and other markets within the next six months, following its successful entry into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore in 2024, Patel told Mint on 31 December.
Currently, the international business contributes about 10% to Mswipe's revenue, but Patel said the company aims to grow this share to about 40% as new markets mature in the next three years.
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“In the UAE, we have 5,000 merchants and process $150 million in transactions monthly. We have expanded to Singapore and plan to grow transaction volumes to $50 million per month in 12–18 months," said Patel.
Patel noted that while India remains important for Mswipe, the potential for higher profits in international markets has driven the company’s focus on expanding into the five key global regions.
Mswipe competes with companies like Razorpay, PayU, and Pine Labs, among others, in the offline payments sector. In September, Mint reported that Razorpay is also prioritizing international expansion, targeting Southeast Asian markets like Singapore ahead of its public listing.
Series of pivots
Founded in 2011 by Manish Patel and Ketan Patel, Mswipe is a payments service provider for businesses, offering solutions for card, mobile, contactless, QR code and other payments.
The startup began with a retail-focused model, employing on-ground salespeople to acquire customers. “When I took over the business four years ago, I realized that it isn’t a scalable model," said Patel, who took over as CEO in July 2021.
After the pandemic, Mswipe moved to a model where the company acquires customers through over 40 partner banks. From 5,000 salespeople in 2019, Mswipe now has only 1,300 personnel for acquiring merchants, Patel added.
In addition to payments, Mswipe is focusing on offering its internally developed suite of products to clients, marking its second key business segment—Paytech.
In February, Mswipe secured a payment aggregator (PA) licence from the the Reserve Bank of India, joining the likes of Razorpay, Cashfree, PayU, and Amazon Pay in the space.
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Patel, who was initially expected to lead the lending business, ultimately shut it down in December 2022. Amid regulatory crackdowns on unsecured lending businesses, the company had temporarily paused operations of its NBFC arm, MCapital, which accounted for about 10% of its operations.
Patel said the NBFC business has now been completely shut down, with no plans to restart lending. The company’s assets under management (AUM), which stood at approximately ₹150 crore in December 2022, has since reduced to around ₹4 crore as the business winds down.
“Lending was not pursued further because it would make us competitors to banks. We changed the model completely and are now working with about 40 banks," added Patel.
He also said these business pivots led to muted revenue growth in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23, though the company successfully managed to control its losses. “We decided that if we are pivoting, let’s get done with all issues in the business so there is no baggage and we can run free," he said.
The company’s cash profit surged by 495.6% to ₹4.5 crore in 2023-24, compared to a loss of ₹1.1 crore in 2022-23. Revenue from its payments business grew 6.3%, reaching ₹275.4 crore, up from ₹259.2 crore the previous year.
Mswipe's investors include Alpha Wave Global, Matrix Partners, B Capital, DSG Consumer Partners, Epiq Capital, and UC-RNT. In February last year, the company raised $20 million in equity capital from its existing investors. So far, the startup has raised over $125 million in funding.