FSS and Airpay to Onboard MSMEs Onto Digital Payments

Chennai (India) - FSS (Financial Software and Systems), a globally leading provider of payment products and a payment processor and Airpay, a leading omnichannel financial services platform, announced a strategic collaboration to accelerate electronic payments acceptance by micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The alliance is a part of the company’s global strategy to bring banks and payment aggregators onto FSS Embark – its omni-channel acquirer platform - to build an inclusive digital payment services ecosystem that efficiently caters to the MSME segment.

Access to cost-efficient digital payments is a fundamental need for businesses today. MSMEs, however, remain underserved due to the diverse and fragmented nature of the market segment as well low profitability in relation to costs of acquiring and servicing these merchants. Under the umbrella of this partnership, FSS and Airpay bring complementary strengths to improve MSME access to digital services. Airpay would be responsible for first-mile enablement – for acquiring, onboarding, technology enablement and providing ongoing support to MSMEs – whilst FSS would be responsible for last-mile single window transaction processing.

Speaking on the alliance, Krishnan Srinivasan, Global Chief Revenue Officer, FSS said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has made digital the new normal and the ability to participate in digital commerce is crucial for MSME survival and growth. We are excited to partner with Airpay for FSS Embark to bring reliable digital payment services to MSMEs. The collaboration helps us gain immediate access to an extensive MSME network and we would benefit from Airpay’s strong technology tools and merchant support network on the field, enabling us to rapidly scale our footprint.”

Speaking on the partnership, Kunal Jhunjhunwala CEO, Airpay, said: “MSMEs are at the heart of India’s economy, and are the hardest hit by the pandemic, as they lack, technology and tools that will help them sell in the digital marketplace. Our partnership with FSS helps make the entire transaction processing more reliable and efficient. It would enable us to expand services to a large base of merchants by offering them a range of innovative digital payment acceptance services -- online, instore and mobile -- to participate and compete in a digital-first economy.”

MSMEs represent 90 per cent of businesses in India and play a crucial role in India’s economy --contributing 30 per cent to the county’s total GDP and employing an approximate 28 per cent of the country’s workforce. A B2B omni-channel acquiring service, FSS Embark partners with banks and merchant aggregators and helps them leverage its reliable, and scalable technology platform to transform the economics of servicing MSMEs.