Cardpe: Assessing the market potential in a dynamic payments ecosystem in India

the case follows Sumeet Mehta, CEO of Cardpe Services Private Ltd, a fintech startup established to tap into the gap that existed in the payments acceptance infrastructure in India. Cardpe was all set to launch a mobile Point-of-Sale (mPOS) device – a wireless handheld integrated unit - that processed credit/debit card payments. Cash was a predominant medium of transaction in the country but the government was accelerating digitalisation and promoting measures to move towards a less-cash economy. Measures were underway to bring the largely unbanked public into banking network. Correspondingly, debit and credit card issuance was also growing. However, the availability of point-of-sale (POS) devices that could process credit/debit card payments was inadequate and remained concentrated among large merchants in cities. Due to this shortfall, the use of cards for payments remained low.