Online payment platforms lead the fight against COVID-19

Online payments startup, PayU has announced a 100% TDR waiver and removal of transactions fee for NGOs. The company states that NGOs are working relentlessly to bring resources and help those in need and distress. “To support NGOs in combatting COVID-19, we have removed the transaction fee on donations. Besides this, we have also introduced initiatives to help citizens in finding verified NGO's and donate to their causes,” the company said in a statement. It has also announced a 100% TDR waiver for NGOs collecting donations through PayU amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This will help NGO’s mobilize their resources to the fullest and contribute to COVID-19 relief efforts.

“We have also launched a platform of verified NGOs, to raise awareness about different causes and spur donation drives. This includes Akshaya Patra’s COVID-19 relief service, Ketto’s Coronavirus Relief Fund, MCKS Food For The Hungry Foundation, Life Save Foundation, Blooming Lives Foundation, Smile India Trust Program. From delivering home-cooked meals providing PPE kits, equipping the underprivileged with essential items like masks, food and sanitisers to distributing ration amongst those in need, citizens can contribute to any cause and help the underserved,” the company added.

Other Online Payment Platforms leading the fight against COVID-19

Paytm has inducted several initiatives

Paytm is using CoWIN API for the COVID-19 Vaccine Finder. The Paytm Vaccine Finder platform tracks 780 districts in India for slot availability. It helps citizens to filter vaccine slots based on location and age, free and paid vaccines. If you can’t find a slot, it lets you select the option for real-time alerts from Paytm once a slot is free. Further, Paytm also announced that it is offering its Payment Gateway services at 0% transaction fees to all registered NGOs across the country. This effort will help them secure maximum resources for swift, seamless, and smooth COVID relief work. This service would be applicable on donations of up to Rs 10 lakh.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said Paytm has also internally raised Rs 2 crore to procure 10,000 oxygen concentrators (OC) and opened the fundraiser to its users. Through its CSR arm, Paytm Foundation will also donate 100 oxygen concentrators to the ‘Corona Sewa Yagna’ – LIFE initiative by the Governor of Gujarat. The foundation will also donate an oxygen-generating plant to the Gujarat governor. The oxygen concentrators will be sent to public hospitals, Covid-19 clinics, primary health centres, dedicated Covid-19 hospitals and health centres.

Razorpay launched a dedicated Donate Now tab

Razorpay has enabled a ‘Donate Now’ feature on the payment checkout page of all its merchants. It is also helping NGOs collect donations for assisting COVID-19 patients by activating their payments page within 24 hours. Razorpay has also done away with transaction fee on donations up to Rs 10 lakh.

Spice Money will help rural citizens with Covid Vaccination registration

Rural Fintech Startup, Spice Money has launched a dedicated assistance initiative for Covid vaccination registration. The platform will help rural citizens to register through its dense network across 18000+ pin codes. The company has also initiated a special drive to spread awareness and educate its banking correspondent partners (Spice Money Adhikaris) about the priority vaccination available to them.

Spice Money Adhikari network covering 95% of India’s rural pin codes will facilitate people to register and book an appointment for vaccination. They are also working to dispel vaccine-related myths that may exist in smaller communities.

Cashfree will add equal donation received by Mission Oxygen to fight COVID-19

Fintech startup Cashfree has pledged to support Mission Oxygen, a campaign by Democracy People Foundation. The campaign aims to help hospitals across India get access to oxygen concentrators. Thus, in association with online crowdfunding platform Ketto, Cashfree will contribute ₹1 for every ₹1 received as a donation on the platform, up to a total of ₹40 lakhs, for oxygen concentrators. During the campaign, Cashfree will also be the exclusive payment gateway for Ketto.

Further, Cashfree has launched ‘Payment links for Donations’. The company aims to help organisations raise funds and accept payments digitally for COVID-19 relief. They can create a link using the sites Payment Gateway Dashboard. The USP of the link is, that it does not require any additional coding for integration.

Organisations can even list the link on their website and share it through WhatsApp, SMS, email to collect donations. Further, for organizations that are collecting donations for COVID-19 relief, the company has announced that it will waive off all payment gateway processing fees on transactions up to Rs 10 lakhs. It will also enable a 15 minutes payment gateway settlement at no cost. Some prominent users of the donation links include crowdfunding platforms such as Ketto, Milaap, Socionity, etc.

CRED Donation

“CRED members can now donate CRED coins towards buying oxygen concentrators for hospitals, healthcare organisation across India. With a goal of 1 billion litres, we’ve partnered with Milaap to ensure contributions reach hospitals in need. We have also seen how the mobilisation of ordinary people, their time, resources, and energy has created change and action,” said Kunal Shah, Founder, CRED.

The company, in partnership with crowdfunding platform Milaap, announced the initiative on April 26. For every 10,000 CRED Coins will go towards sending 1,000 litres of oxygen to hospitals.

Read how corporates and startups are collaborating in our Fight Against Corona.