Chaldal Payments Limited, a subsidiary of Chaldal Limited, has been granted a no-objection certificate by the Bangladesh Bank to launch an e-wallet under the PSP license. This permission will allow Chaldal to facilitate payments or payment processes directly to the customers and settle their transactions through a scheduled bank or financial institution. Chaldal has been working on a payment product called ChaldalPay. A year ago, the company signed an agreement with BRAC Bank to use its settlement services to facilitate transactions for the e-wallet.
In an announcement on its official social media page, the company writes: “We are delighted to share that Bangladesh Bank has accepted our application and issued a NOC to offer wallet services to our customers. Based on this PSP License, Chaldal Payments Limited (a subsidiary of Chaldal Limited) is going to build an e-wallet that will make online transactions more secure and safe. A big day for Chaldal, a big step towards a cashless ecosystem.”
After years of preparation and steady growth, Chaldal has been on an expansion spree of late. The company has entered new categories, horizontally moved into new verticals via acquisitions and investments — Cookups and BanglaMeds come to mind, and launched its services in several new cities. To that end, the timing for ChaldalPay could not have been better.
Vertical integration and Chaldal’s strategic upsides
Chaldal has been on a roll, expanding into new verticals, cities, and categories. In the last few months, it has expanded into four new cities in Bangladesh. Chaldal is now available in seven cities in Bangladesh including Dhaka, Narayanganj, Chittagong, Jessore, Khulna, Sylhet, and Rajshahi. The company says it plans to expand to 15 cities in the coming months. As competition grows in digital commerce, Chaldal is likely to invest more to maintain its lead in online grocery and related verticals.
Chaldal raised $10 million in a Series C funding round in September to expand across Bangladesh, develop other product offerings, expand coverage of its on-demand delivery service GoGo Bangla Limited, and launch a direct-to-consumer pharmacy. The company has since acquired e-pharmacy startup BanglaMeds.
Payment is the second vertical expansion for Chaldal. Previously, the company has launched Chaldal Vegetable Network to have greater control over the vegetable supply chain and ensure better pricing for its customers. As the company expands into new categories, it will likely look for more vertical integrations to incorporate features it once left to partners.
ChaldalPay, once launched, is going to be one of the most important integrations for the company. I read users will still be presented with a myriad of payment options but will enjoy additional benefits for using ChaldalPay such as all of their payment and delivery information will be pre-populated, making it possible to buy with just one additional tap, reducing costs, etc. I explained in Chaldal To Get Into Digital Payments With ChaldalPay:
“Payment is a critical part of the customer experience for companies like Chaldal. An e-wallet of its own means Chaldal will be able to better deal with refunds, offering discounts, and other benefits to customers. It also offers a competitive moat to the company allowing deeper integration across different parts of its operation, a new interaction point for customers thus new customer acquisition opportunities, and creating one more reason for customers to stick with Chaldal.
Over the past years, Chaldal has made a number of diversification efforts within grocery and food. It has not only built a successful online grocery business but also built an end-to-end grocery supply chain creating a direct backward linkage with farmers as well as a forward linkage with smallholder retailers allowing it greater leverage in the grocery supply chain. Payment should help Chaldal better integrate its existing operation and reach out to a new customer base.”
Chaldal aims to establish a “transactional relationship with every business and customer in Bangladesh.” When you embed payment into the Chaldal ecosystem, everything gets better.”
