Bengaluru: 44 Local Shopkeepers from Namma Bengaluru, who have never even ventured out of Karnataka, have received a lifetime opportunity to go International – and visit Thailand and London, for supporting BharatPe UPI. And that’s not it, some will even watch India-Bangladesh match on July 3, 2019; and those going to Thailand, will get an opportunity to see Tiger Temple, Royal palaces, ancient ruins and ornate temples displaying figures of Buddha.

One of the shopkeeper, Ravindra Shetty had started a roadside business just 4 months back of selling groceries. For him, this is a dream come true. “I have never crossed Karnataka border, and can’t keep my feet on the ground for the rewards I have received from BharatPe for using UPI payments. Good begets good, and I encourage all my fellow shopkeepers to support UPI payments, they take away the hassles of cash, and even give us unheard of rewards.”, said, Ravindra Shetty.

Another winner is Rama, who owns Manju Condiments, a small food store in Bengaluru. Rama works very hard to fulfil his family’s basic needs. While he is content with the fact that he is able to fulfil the basic requirement of food & shelter for his parents & siblings, he was always worried about keeping cash at home and managing the same. “BharatPe is like my finance head. I don’t have to worry about keeping statements, or managing cash. And additionally, I get to visit London to watch India play! not just me, but my entire village is so excited!”, said Rama.

BharatPe ran a contest which was live across five cities – Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai, from February 17 to April 30, 2019. Teams of 11 Merchants transact on UPI to score; Whole team’s scores were calculated to rank them for the prizes. The endeavor was to promote UPI payments among merchants through the contest. Other winners have won 55 LED TVs, 55 Smartphones, 110 Amazon Echo(s) and 1,100 BMS Vouchers.

Ashneer Grover, Co-founder and CEO of BharatPe, said, “We are nurturing a community of merchants and supporting their finance needs with new age solutions, that didn’t exist for them till now. One QR code UPI payments, lending, networking, digital Bahi Khata, and many more such services help us in serving these merchants, and in turn they reward us with their love and   support.”

“The joy of doing business doubles when your customers become your promoters. This is a small gesture from BharatPe for the most critical but often neglected segment of India’s retail ecosystem. We hope these merchants enjoy these well-earned off days overseas and get new perspectives to grow their businesses.” Ashneer added.

BharatPe is a truly ‘Indian’ fintech company serving offline retailers and businesses with payments, lending,  and other financial services. Co-founded in 2018 by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani, BharatPe has established operations in 13 cities, serving over 8 Lakh merchants across Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Mysore, and Visakhapatnam. The company is on track to serve over 25 Lakh merchants on its network by the end of 2019.

With the vision to become a holistic fintech platform for merchants, the company has launched India’s first UPI Bahi Khata, a full stack service & networking app for all merchants, big or small, that allows them to track payments in real-time, maintain ledger (khata), request payments on SMS via UPI payment links, avail loans, and track supplier payments by uploading bills.