It was more than just a dream come true for mChek CEO Sanjay Swamy and his team when they demonstrated the first mobile-initiated person-to-person money transfer to the media on behalf of Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Mittal and SBI Chairman O.P. Bhatt at the International 3GSM Congress at Barcelona in February 2007. This wasn’t a niche application – rather a first step towards realization of the vision for a paperless society; a society where anyone with a bank account and a mobile phone can send and receive money as if they were sending a text message! Twelve months later, mChek received the prestigious GSM Award for the best product in billing and customer care at the same event. This path breaking concept to democratize electronic money had gone from concept to reality and now is progressing towards the vision of transforming the way people live – a convenience for many and a fundamental enabler of financial services for those at the bottom of the pyramid of the society.

This pioneering vision of mChek, a Bangalore based startup, will certainly create multiple dimensions of positive impact to society. For example, today a farmer from a village takes a big risk while carrying large amounts of cash after selling his commodity in a mandi. If mChek has its way, the buyer would make the payment to the farmer through his mobile phone, as soon as he or she receives delivery and the farmer would receive notification of the payment via his/her mobile. Neither has to carry cash. While returning home, the farmer pays money for his farming and household requirements through his mobile. That’s the power of a paper-less and a plastic-less society where your wallet, credit and debit cards and bank accounts are integrated into a petite device you carry.

mChek’s unique solution leverages the mobile phone to enable consumer financial transactions on the go. Simply put, with a bank account, a mobile, and one’s mChekPIN, one can perform a broad range of financial transactions – ranging from sending or receiving money, paying merchants and billers or even buying and selling shares and mutual funds.

mChek is able to bring this value to customers because the platform fundamentally makes for very efficient business – often at a fraction of the cost of a normal transaction; at the same time, the ‘anytime anywhere’ convenience to the consumer make for a win-win proposition across the entire eco-system.

The Opportunity
With over 250 Million mobile phone subscribers in India, and an additional 7-8 Million being added every month, mobile phones are increasingly being looked upon as a medium to reach out to the masses, especially in the rural belt.