SabPaisa

Origin Story

SabPaisa was born from a firsthand observation: Indian educational institutions were struggling with fee collection. Parents queued for hours, institutions managed cash manually, and reconciliation was a nightmare.

In 2015, we set out to solve this problem. The vision was simple but ambitious: make digital payments accessible to every institution in India, regardless of size or technical sophistication.

The early days were challenging. Banks were skeptical of working with a new payment company. Institutions were hesitant to change processes that had worked (however inefficiently) for decades. We had to prove ourselves one integration at a time.

Business Model

SabPaisa operates as a B2B payment aggregator, sitting between merchants (institutions) and payment networks (banks, UPI, cards).

Value Creation:

• Single integration for all payment methods (UPI, cards, net banking, wallets)
• Automated reconciliation eliminating manual tracking
• Real-time settlement and reporting
• Compliance handling (PCI-DSS, RBI regulations)

Revenue Model:

• Transaction-based fees (percentage of payment value)
• Platform fees for advanced features
• Integration support services

Key Differentiators:

• Deep specialization in education sector
• Vernacular support (payments in local languages)
• Offline-online hybrid (collection centers + digital payments)

Growth Journey

The First 100 Clients (2015-2016)

Breaking into the market meant proving reliability. We focused on small schools in tier-2 cities where the pain of manual collection was acute and willingness to experiment was higher.

Every onboarding was hands-on. We would visit institutions, understand their specific workflows, and customize solutions.

RBI License (2017)

Securing the RBI payment aggregator license was a turning point. It meant institutional clients could trust us with regulatory compliance. The licensing process took 18 months of documentation, audits, and system hardening.

Scaling to 1,000+ (2018-2020)

With regulatory credentials established, we could approach larger institutions. We expanded beyond education into government fee collections and enterprise B2B invoicing.

Navigating COVID-19 (2020-2021)

The pandemic accelerated digital payment adoption dramatically. We scaled infrastructure to handle 5x transaction volume while maintaining 99.9% uptime.

Key Achievements

By the Numbers

• 1,500+ Active Clients: Institutions across education, government, enterprise
• 50+ Team Members: Engineering, product, operations, sales
• 99.9% Uptime: Enterprise-grade reliability

Recognition

• RBI-licensed payment aggregator (one of few in India)
• PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant (highest security standard)
• Trusted by government institutions for citizen services

Lessons Learned

On Building in Regulated Industries

Compliance isn’t a checkbox; it’s a competitive moat. Companies that treat regulation as a burden lose to those who make it a capability.

On B2B Sales Cycles

Enterprise sales is a marathon, not a sprint. Some of our largest clients took 2+ years from first meeting to signed contract.

On Technical Architecture

Build for 10x scale from day one. Every time we thought we had capacity headroom, a new client segment would stress-test our assumptions.