Synopsis
Visa-owned card processing startup Pismo wants to scale up in India and is working with banks while launching new products to achieve this, Vishal Dalal, global chief executive officer, told ET in an exclusive interaction. Pismo is a Brazilian fintech that Visa snapped up for $1 billion in 2024. It is now leveraging Visa’s banking relationships to grow in India and other markets.
Visa-owned card processing startup Pismo is looking to scale its India business by signing on more banks and launching products like digital lending and core banking solutions.
The company also offers digital wallets, vendor solutions (manage payments for businesses selling through online or offline channels), etc.
Speaking exclusively with ET, Vishal Dalal, global chief executive officer, Pismo, said the company is already working with eight banks in India and execution is underway to go live with the ninth
The company manages around 5,00,000 accounts in India and around 170 million globally.
A strong player in South America, Pismo also has clients in the Netherlands, USA, UK, Thailand, Australia, and is now targeting the Cemea region (central Europe, Middle East, and Africa).
“In India, about 25% of our business is credit cards, and the rest is prepaid and debit cards,” Dalal added.
A Brazilian fintech startup, Pismo was acquired by global card payment major Visa for $1 billion in 2024. Now Pismo is using Visa’s relationships with banks to scale its presence in India and other countries like the USA and Australia. In India, Pismo competes with Tiger Global and Beenext-backed fintech M2P.
The company has around 60 to 70 employees in India running one of its largest tech centres outside Brazil, its home market. Overall, the startup has around 700 employees with around a third of its force dedicated to products and tech.
The company offers UPI payment processing as well, but is currently using the tech stack of a third party to power such transactions.
“We use someone else’s switch (payment management system) for UPI, but will have our own as well, and are planning to apply to NPCI for the required licences,” Dalal said.
Dalal, who studied in India and worked across the globe for the likes of Citibank and Barclays, became the global CEO four months back. Prior to that he led the non-Brazil businesses of the 2016-founded startup for more than four years.
“For the first five years since the company was founded we were mostly operating in Brazil, then I was brought in 2021 to lead the global expansion,” explained Dalal, who currently lives in London.
As a startup, trying to win core banking deals with large Indian lenders is a huge challenge. This sector has been historically dominated by large IT companies and the likes of Oracle. But Dalal said that being backed by Visa should instil confidence among clients.
Pismo, which runs on AWS, helps migrate card payment systems to the cloud, and given that AWS has a strong presence in India, Pismo is well placed to offer its solutions to Indian banks, added Dalal.
Source: www.economictimes.indiatimes.com