Sarvatra Technologies

Sarvatra Technologies Private Limited is an Indian fintech company, headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, that develops banking software and provides PaaS (Platform as a Service), SaaS (Software as a Service), and cloud computing solutions to cooperative, private, and public sector banks in India.

As of 2020, the company's PaaS model supported 600 banks in India, while the company's electronic funds transfer (EFT) switch had a 54% market share among application service providers in India. The company had a 55% market share in providing banking software to banks in India.

The company's switch was the recipient of a BFSI Innovation Tribe Award from The Economic Times in 2018, and a Best Banking Technology Award from the Internet and Mobile Association of India in 2019.

History
The company was founded on 22 June 2000 by Mandar Agashe and is headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra. The company initially worked in conjunction with Agashe's other financial technology companies, EBZ Online and Codito, developing banking software solutions. After securing a loan worth ₹35 million from his father's Suvarna Sahakari Bank in May 2002, the companies launched a point of sale (PoS) terminal called "Sarvatra" through the bank's 12 branches across Maharashtra in July 2003. The name Sarvatra Technologies began being used officially by 2004.

In May 2006, the company installed its inaugural "Anywhere Money" point of sale terminal in a bank in Ahmednagar as a proof of concept for the Government of Maharashtra. Then Union Minister of Agriculture Sharad Pawar inaugurated the project. The company's terminals received praise from politicians Shankarrao Gadakh and Hasan Mushrif, with them encouraging local schools, farmers, artisans, and traders to make use of the system. The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, as well as sugarcane factories in the Parner taluka and those of the Brihan Maharashtra Sugar Syndicate implemented use of the terminals for their clients. By January 2008, in a report filed by C. Rangarajan, the Reserve Bank of India's governor at the time, Y. V. Reddy and economist Raghuram Rajan, approved plans for the company to install their terminals in banks nationwide, becoming the sponsor model used by the National Payments Corporation of India for the National Financial Switch.

Earlier in 2007, Agashe, then serving as Sarvatra Technologies's managing director, had merged the company's operations with EBZ Online and Codito, while partnering with Larry Ellison and the Oracle Corporation to introduce banking software technology to rural India, having previously gained I-flex Solutions founder Deepak Ghaisas as a director on Sarvatra Technologies's board of directors in 2002.

In 2010, the company became the first application service provider to connect directly to the National Financial Switch. In July 2011, MLA Sudhakar Paricharak inaugurated the company's first instalment of its point of sale ATMs at a local bank in Pandharpur. By 2014, the company provided core banking services to 104 rural banks in India, and further launched credit and debit cards in partnership with RuPay that same year. Between 2016 and 2018, the company had aided 450 rural cooperative banks across 26 Indian states and union territories to connect to the National Financial Switch.

By 2018, the company had a gross transaction value of ₹400 billion, and had the Enam Group, ICICI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, and the Oracle Corporation as key shareholders. It also provided banking software to HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and Yes Bank, and through ICICI Bank, to Google and WhatsApp. The company further managed 50% and 30% of the total transaction volume generated on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) platforms respectively. That same year, the company's electronic funds transfer (EFT) switch was the recipient of a BFSI Innovation Tribe Award from The Economic Times. In 2019, the switch further received a Best Banking Technology Award from the Internet and Mobile Association of India, while the company was reported to have a 55% market share in providing banking software to banks in India. The company also issued cards under the Kisan Credit Card scheme. Around this time, it was reported that the company sought funding in private equity for its micro ATMs.

In March 2020, the company employed a work from home model in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Agashe announcing his plans to continue with the model after the pandemic. In April that same year, the company reported a three-fold rise in Aadhaar-enabled cash withdrawal in rural areas amid the COVID-19 lockdown in India across its UPI, IMPS, ATM, and PoS modes. Around this time, the company also established a network of micro ATMs and ATM vans to populations affected by the pandemic in rural India. The company also provided banking support to IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Paytm Payments Bank, Equitas Small Finance Bank, and Jana Small Finance Bank, and further had Google Pay as a client. In November 2020, it was reported that the company had established a sponsorship model with the Central Bank of India that would aid the company to build a digital payment infrastructure for small rural banks and credit unions towards India's under-banked rural population as per World Bank estimates. By December of that year, the company had connected 50 urban cooperative banks to its UPI platform.

In 2023, the company announced its collaboration with ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank and Pine Labs to provide payments support to foreign travellers to the 2023 G20 New Delhi summit by issuing UPI enabled mobile payment wallets at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, and Kempegowda International Airport in Bangalore. In February 2024, the company announced a rewards program app with British company Enigmatic Smile, with MS Dhoni as their brand ambassador.

Sarvatra EFT Switch
In 2010, the company's ISO 8583 standard electronic funds transfer (EFT) switch, Sarvatra EFT Switch, became the first EFT switch from an application service provider to be granted permission from the National Payments Corporation of India to join the National Financial Switch. Prior to this, most cooperative banks in India did not have the infrastructure or financing to provide real-time gross settlement within the payment and settlement systems in India. This allowed the company to integrate rural and urban co-operative banks across India to secure Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard ISO/IEC 27001 standard infrastructure. The Sarvatra EFT Switch was thus offered to banks as a Platform as a Service (PaaS) product on the RuPay, Bharat Bill Pay, and Kisan Credit Card network.

After recommendations from the National Payments Corporation of India, the Sarvatra EFT Switch was offered as a software as a service (SaaS) platform to various urban, small and district level cooperative banks in India. The switch's infrastructure enabled transactions on ATMs, point of sale (POS) and ecommerce platforms. By 2018, the Sarvatra EFT Switch was present in banks across 23 Indian states and 3 union territories, and managed 50% of the total national transactions generated on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and 30% of the total national transactions generated on the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) in India.

The Sarvatra EFT Switch was the recipient of a BFSI Innovation Tribe Award from The Economic Times in 2018, and a Best Banking Technology Award from the Internet and Mobile Association of India in 2019. And by 2020, the switch had become a plug and play service offered to banks. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the switch's use in Sarvatra Technologies' micro ATMs and ATM vans aided the company's client banks to provide doorstep cash delivery services to under-banked rural areas of India that were cash-dominant economies.

Sarvatra Rewards App
In February 2024, the company launched the Sarvatra Rewards App, a payment system linked loyalty rewards program app, for the customers of its banks across 27 Indian states and 3 union territories through the company's Unified Payments Interface and RuPay credit and debit card network. The app was developed in partnership with Enigmatic Smile, a United Kingdom based Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard certified financial services organization, through their end user consolidating product Single.id. At an event in Mumbai, former captain of the Indian national cricket team, M. S. Dhoni, was announced as the app's brand ambassador.

Growth
The company has reportedly raised US$19M in total funding over six funding rounds, as of September 2021. Razorpay, Pine Labs, Stripe, and BillDesk were listed as its competitors.