India’s offline merchant payments market is emerging as the next big battleground for fintech firms, and MobiKwik is looking to scale up aggressively after securing regulatory approval from the Reserve Bank of India for its Payment Aggregator-Physical (PA-P) licence.

The Gurugram-based fintech said the in-principle approval will help it deepen its offline merchant payments business and accelerate its ambition of growing the segment 10 times by FY28.

The company currently supports 4.9 million merchants through products such as UPI QR codes, Soundbox devices and electronic data capture (EDC) machines. It plans to expand deployments significantly over the next 18 to 24 months, focusing on small businesses, oil and gas outlets, and organised retail.

The push comes at a time when offline merchant payments are increasingly becoming attractive for fintech firms looking for monetisation opportunities beyond consumer payments. Industry estimates peg the merchant payments gross merchandise value opportunity at $1.8 trillion to $2 trillion by FY28, according to Redseer. 

Unlike consumer payments, which largely operate on zero merchant discount rate (MDR) rails, offline merchant acquiring offers stronger monetisation opportunities through MDR income, subscription models and device rentals. Companies are also betting on merchant transaction data to expand lending and credit distribution opportunities.

The company said the new licence reinforces its ability to build compliant and scalable payment infrastructure in partnership with banks.

“Offline merchant payments are emerging as one of the strongest growth drivers within India’s digital economy, particularly across underpenetrated markets beyond urban India,” said Bipin Preet Singh, co-founder, MD & CEO of MobiKwik. “This PA-P approval strengthens our ability to scale merchant payments infrastructure across the country and sets us up for 10x growth in merchant business by FY28.”

The company also said it currently holds a 20% market share in prepaid payment instrument wallet gross transaction value as of March 2026.

“We remain focused on building secure, scalable and technology-led solutions that help merchants participate more effectively in India’s growing digital economy,” Singh added.

The RBI approval also strengthens MobiKwik’s broader push to position itself as a full-stack fintech platform serving both consumers and merchants. The company had received the Payment Aggregator-Online (PA-O) licence through subsidiary Zaakpay about a year ago, giving it regulatory clearances across both online and offline merchant payments.

Founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, MobiKwik today serves more than 189 million registered users and over 4.8 million merchants, according to the company. Beyond payments, the platform has expanded into financial services including credit products, fixed deposits, mutual funds and digital gold offerings.