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PhonePe Onboards All Electricity Boards Across India To Enable Bill Payments

PhonePe has launched many features to drive growth in the bill payments category.

The digital payment service PhonePe, operated by Flipkart Online Services Pvt., is demonstrated during an arranged photograph in Bengaluru, India. (Photographer: Samyukta Lakshmi/Bloomberg)
The digital payment service PhonePe, operated by Flipkart Online Services Pvt., is demonstrated during an arranged photograph in Bengaluru, India. (Photographer: Samyukta Lakshmi/Bloomberg)

Flipkart-owned PhonePe on Monday said it has onboarded all the 73 electricity boards (both public and private sector) across the country, enabling its over 250 million users to pay their bills through the app.

"We have seen massive growth in the adoption of digital payments for electricity bills since we launched the category in 2016. In fact, there has been an over 40 per cent increase in the volume of electricity bill payments in October 2020 over the corresponding period last year," Ankit Gaur, Director of Business Development at PhonePe, said.

He added that over 80% of its customers are in tier II cities and beyond, indicating the widespread adoption of contactless bill payments.

PhonePe has launched many features to drive growth in the bill payments category, including 'Reminders' and AutoPay options.

Analytics consulting firm Evalueserve on Monday said it has selected Commvault, a data solutions provider, to automate its data protection processes.

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By adopting Commvault Complete Data Protection, Evalueserve is able to securely encrypt backup copies and rapidly restore them, even in case of any ransomware attack, a statement said.

Evalueserve is currently using Commvault to protect its on-premises data, including databases, applications, and file servers, and looking to expand the solution to all locations, it added.

Evalueserve has six operating centres globally. The company also plans to expand the Commvault backup solution to support its hybrid-cloud environment.

By adopting Commvault, Evalueserve can quickly complete the restoration drill 57% faster than before, and the improved efficiency helped the company to accelerate the turnaround time for backup and restore by 50%, the statement said.

Short format video app KIKO TV on Monday said it is repositioning the company as an assisted shopping experience app.

"The platform which was launched a few months ago, amidst the pandemic, has been witnessing a 30% month-on-month increase in the social commerce vertical and will now be focusing on the growing market opportunities present within the same," a statement said.

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The startup will be investing in building the same by acquiring a larger user database and building an aggregator community for sellers, it added.

Amid the pandemic, many buyers are looking to get a live shopping experience digitally from their favourite stores and brands, and KIKO TV aims to fill this gap and introduce a two-way live video communication stage between merchants and buyers, the statement said.

Keeping the current #VocalForLocal and #MadeInIndia sentiment, KIKO TV will feature products from local Indian vendors only, it added.