The online payment system has given a new face to the businesses at the global platform and to fight the strong competition prevailing today, it has become essential that the digital payment system is put into practice by any kind of businesses. This is compulsory for the eCommerce websites and apps but for the other types of businesses which are online or offline too, it is proved to be obligatory to implement that payment system to satisfy the demands of the customers.

Five friends from Gujarat determined to inject the ease of access to this and founded PayKun Payment Gateway together. Vijay Yadav who is a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering specializes in Business development and handles the legal work and Banking Procedures. Deepak Dabhi is a CFO and manages Accounts, Human Resources and Graphics & Design in the company. He has a Diploma In Computer Science. Nikunj Yadav is a Bachelors of Computer Applications and manages the Server. Nirav Solanki is Bachelors in Engineering in Information Technology and as a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) managing the Sales and Marketing as well as Customer Service Department. Prashant Kambad did BE in the field of IT and has been doing Technological Development. Together they have built quite a successful startup.

Tell us everything about your company, what does it do? What were the challenges of setting up and scale? How did you overcome them?

PayKun was launched on 15 August 2018 and was officially registered on 31st May 2018. It has been providing easy and reliable online payment gateway services to any type and size of businesses including the non-registered, offline, Bloggers, Freelancers, etc. It focuses on how to make it easy for any kind of businesses to collect online payment from their customers. For that, it provides a fast and secured way of online payment collection through all major 120+ payment options including debit card, credit card, wallets, net banking, UPI, QR code, etc. It follows the highest level of security compliance of PCI DSS Level 1 and the AES Encryption standards so it is impossible to hack and the data and funds are safe and secured. It supports all the major platforms for integration into website and mobile applications. Apart from that, it does not compulsorily require a website or mobile application as it can be used with the help of payment links and master links, which can be copy-pasted and sent through any possible medium like email, messenger, WhatsApp, etc.

Challenges

We have had various ups and downs in reaching here. The major challenge was to develop PayKun in Bhavnagar a tier 3 city of Gujarat due to the lack of human resource. We had hired a staff of 15 employees, which was very good but insufficient for such a big set up. Also, all five of us were from a non-fintech field and had zero knowledge about the payment gateway development and its requirements. We spent almost 6 months researching all these and then took almost 2 years in its technical development, banking tie-ups, legal procedures, RBI and security compliances, etc. We took one step at a time. With our teamwork, dedication and hard work we overcame each struggle and are still doing the same.

How did you come up with the idea and what was the Eureka moment?

After graduating, all five of us were least interested in continuing with a job and had a dream to indulge ourselves into a successful business. So we together started a Freelancing business of our own wherein we required a payment gateway ourselves. We faced a lot of trouble in getting one as our business wasn’t registered at that time. We received delayed responses from them (the top payment gateways) and some did not even reply. We understood that it is tough for small businesses and startups to offer an online payment facility to their customers.

We realised that this is not fair to these businesses that they have to limit themselves. And this way they will not be able to grow and cannot make a farther reach. This was when the idea of developing own payment gateway for all types and sizes of businesses emerged in our brains and we started working on it.

What is the one thing that sets you apart from your competitors and what’s your revenue model?

Our struggle has resulted in the development of our startup and because of that, we are focusing on making it easy for the merchants to collect online payments and help them grow. So, we provide fast onboarding facility and responsive support to our clients and their customers through chats, emails and calls. We provide the highest successful transaction rate of 95%. The user interface is easy to understand and has been developed with modern technology and infrastructure. We provide 120+ all the major online payment options, these are the highest. We have 10000+ merchants on board in a  very short period of time.

How are you funded?

We are self-funded and do not have any third-party investment. There are various side projects going on that supports PayKun.

Tell us about an accomplishment you are most proud of?

Well, we have fulfilled our main set goal and that is to provide our services at the lowest rates called the transaction discount rate (TDR) and I can proudly say that we charge the lowest TDR. There is no setup, maintenance or integration fee as well as guaranteed zero hidden charges. Apart from that, we had reached the transactions worth 1 million last month and the total till today is 8.5 million.

How does the product? A detailed answer to the workings of the product Or how does the platform work? How does your service work?

Payment Gateway is a very useful means for genuine businesses to collect payments with various online payment methods. However, at the same time, we have experienced many fraudsters who have been stealing from the customers with their fake business models. So, we have to take the utmost care to approve any merchant accounts. At the same time, we manage to give the approvals to genuine accounts as fast as possible. So they sign-up and can first access the test modes. After their satisfaction with the workings, they get registered with the basic documents and the same are verified and approved by our team.

Later, it can be integrated with the website or application into all major platforms such as PHP, Magento, Android, iOS, WordPress, Ruby, Python, .Net, Node JS, Java, WHMCS, Prestashop, Opencart, etc. Or can be used without a website or app with the help of its payment links and master links. The merchant can track and manage transactions and all other functions like refunds, settlements, customers, etc, from the available smart merchant dashboard.

So, the payments made by the customers are settled directly in the bank account of the merchants through PayKun. We provide fast settlements too.

Tell us about the USP of your brand and where do you see yourself in next 5 years?

The prominent features that we possess are as follows:

• We are among the cheapest payment gateway service provider,
• PayKun has 120+ major popular online payment options,
• We provide free integration services to our active merchants and charge nothing extra,
• We support individual businesses and other all types of entities doing genuine business,
• Integrity is our pillar around which we have developed so we have pledged to do the right thing at all times and we do not charge any hidden fees to stand by our words.

The company mission is to provide entrepreneurs with a simple, hassle-free and affordable online payment solution. Its vision is to empower the business enterprises of all sizes to accept digital payments for their business in the most secured and easiest way possible with a reliable platform.

PayKun would get all the genuine Indian business of all types and sizes registered for online payment collection and would provide all the possible features at one place. With that, it wants to bring all the businesses under the digital roof.

What message do you have for the Budding Entrepreneurs?

I would say that the journey would be a risk-taking adventure but patience is the virtue and you will definitely get the fruits of all your hard work. Learning new things from each step of success and failure and improvising accordingly is how it will take you to the peaks of success. The consistency and perseverance will make even the impossible things possible in the journey of your new venture.