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.