The Success Story of OneCard: How it is giving India the Smartest Metal Credit Card

Company Profile is an initiative by ListMyStartUp to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by OneCard.

Isn't it a bit exciting when you own a credit card? It is one of the most powerful tools a man can have. However, the right way of using a credit card is imperative as you have to pay for its bill later.

Several credit card issuers include VISA, MasterCard, and so on. However, digitization has bought a lot of changes in how we use how credit cards and the benefits that come with them. These advantages include a hassle-free shopping experience, easy cash withdrawal, no need to carry cash, and hundreds of rewards and offers like cashback, and coupons. You can see most working people use credit cards that have become an indispensable part of their lives.

OneCard - Company Highlights

  • Headquarters-Pune, India
  • Sector-Financial Services
  • Founder-Rupesh Kumar, Anurag Sinha, Vibhav Hathi
  • Founded-2019
  • Valuation-$1.4 billion
  • Revenue-Rs 10 crores
  • Total Funding Raised-$225.2 million
  • Parent Organisation-FPL Technologies
  • Website getonecard.app

OneCard - About and how does it work?

Founded in 2019,  FPL Technologies launched the brand 'OneCard' to redefine credit card that is designed in metal with full stack tech backed with transparency and clarity, making it India's best-ever mobile credit card. OneCard currently offers services in 12 cities across India, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, and NCR.

The newest startup to enter the unicorn club, OneCard has teamed up with several banks like IDFC First Bank, SBM Bank, South Indian Bank, Federal Bank, and Bank of Baroda Financial. It claims to have more than 600,000 users across the country.

To keep security in check, the company boasts of having a strong commitment to its users' data security. It stores, and uses user data using its rock-solid secure procedures and technology implementations, in conjunction with regulatory compliance.

OneCard's credit card allows its users to control every characteristic of a credit card, such as domestic or international use, transaction limit, online or offline, contactless payments, and many more benefits.

Any customer wanting to start using OneCard can experience a seamless onboarding without much of a hassle. The activation of the credit card is digital and activates within five minutes. It comes without any hidden costs or annual fees by giving its customers more flexibility in using the card for transactions.  It also offers EMI transactions that further give rewards to its customers. Lastly, one of the interesting features of OneCard is - the credit card can be shared with the user's family, wherein the family will get OneCard of their own, whose spending can be controlled and managed by the user. OneCard is available on both Android and iOS.

FPL Technologies also run another app known as 'OneScore' to allow users to track their credit score. This app has about 70 million users.

OneCard - Industry Details

It is great to see that India is among the fastest-growing Fintech market in the world today. With this, some statistics say that the Indian FinTech industry is predicted to be worth $180 billion according to Deloitte. Furthermore, it was reported that the global Fintech industry revenue was around $90.5 billion and since then the figure is only going upwards.

OneCard - Founders

OneCard is founded by three banking veterans Rupesh Kumar, Anurag Sinha, and Vibhav Hathi in 2019.

Rupesh Kumar

Rupesh Kumar got his master's degree from the Indian School of Business in Analytical Finance. He is also an alumnus of IIT, Delhi, where he got his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. Rupesh started by working as a Software Engineer at Geometric Ltd. He has also worked at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein for almost 2 years. During his stint at ICICI Bank, where he worked for 18 years, Rupesh was engaged in building and scaling mobile banking and digital payments at the bank such as - iMobile, UPI, Immediate Payment Services, Digital Wallet (Pockets), and Internet banking. He was responsible for the equity and debt fundraising and acquisition of two banks.

Anurag Sinha

Anurag Sinha is a graduate of IIT, Varanasi. He holds an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Anurag serves as a Member of the Global Advisory Board at Shoolini University, Himachal Pradesh. Before founding OneCard, he founded Walnut App in 2016, which is a personal finance mobile app, which automatically tracks spending, bank and card balances, P2P & bill payments, and split expenses without the need for bank passwords. Later on, the company got acquired by Capital Float. He has been associated with many organizations playing key roles. His longest stint was at ICICI Bank, where he worked for 13 years. Anurag Sinha is presently the CEO of FPL Technologies.

Vibhav Hathi

Vibhav Hathi has worked at ICICI Bank for 14 years, where he played many significant roles. Before becoming the founding member of OneCard, Vibhav founded his first company called Open Canvas, which is a mobile-based transaction platform to drive inter-operable digital payment. He was also a part of Reliance as a Management Trainee. Vibhav holds an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.

OneCard - Mission and Vision

The mission of OneCard is, "To be India's Best Metal Credit Card"

OneCard- Business and Revenue Model

The business model of OneCard is a mobile-based application model. The company mostly offers B2C solutions by teaming with various banks to offer the services of a credit card. The company's main focus is consumer-based initiatives and improving customer experience.

The main business of OneCard is that it provides first-time credit card customers with a virtual, cellphone-based card to help them increase their credit score. It also offers an EMI service for purchases of Rs 3,000 and more, with an interest rate of 1.33% and a payback period of 3-24 months. The Credit card can be used both online and offline. It also offers a loyalty program to its customers, granting them reward points that they may spend for their next purchase.

The main build-up of OneCard has a technological stack that enables common sense features like transaction transparency, credit card bill due dates, and incentives, which are more easily accessible.

The company's revenue crossed over Rs 10 crores in the fiscal year 2021. Along with this, the company's total costs increased by 4.3X to Rs 33.15 crore.

OneCard - Challenges Faced

One of the biggest challenges faced by OneCard is the competition with UPIs. UPIs which are developed by retail banks are quickly gaining popularity. Although the rapid adoption of UPI reduced the use of debit cards, on the other hand, credit cards appear to be relatively impervious. However, the recent direction by the central bank that the role of co-branding partners for credit cards should be limited to marketing and distribution of cards and giving access to the cardholder for the products and services supplied is predicted to harm multiple credit card startups. Besides this, the integration of credit cards with UPI indicates that there will be an increase in credit card usage, but also poses a challenge to their business model because of no clearness on the merchant discount rate (MDR) for such expenses.

OneCard - Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns

In April 2022, OneCard ran two campaigns with the #BeTeamMetal. The ad is about OneCard's mobile credit card that takes care of every aspect of its customer's credit in just one card such as bill payments, transactions, spending limit, offers and rewards, and much more. In one video, a girl can be seen walking through the metal detector for security checking. The detector makes noise because of OneCard's metal built-up, thus, showing the card's genuineness. The campaign was a big hit with 14 million views.

OneCard - Competitors

The top competitors of OneCard are:

  • CRED
  • Slice
  • Uni
  • Olly Credit
  • Stori
  • Stashfin
  • KrazyBee
  • Quiklo

FAQs

Is OneCard RBI approved?

Yes, OneCard and its operations are approved by the RBI.

Can I withdraw money from OneCard?

Yes, you can withdraw money from an ATM using OneCard.

What is the credit limit of OneCard?

The credit limit ranges from INR 11,000 to INR 1.10,000.

How to repay OneCard bill?

Bill amount can be repaid via its mobile app.