BHIM eyeing govt schemes, products to boost business growth

Government-backed payments app BHIM plans to tap into state-run initiatives such as direct benefit transfer (DBT) and digitisation of self-help group (SHG), along with financial services distribution, to drive the next phase of growth, as it looks to build revenue streams beyond UPI payments.

Lalitha Nataraj, chief executive of NPCI BHIM Services Ltd (NBSL) that operates the app, said the company is targeting largely untapped user segments and use cases, especially in markets beyond the top cities, that could help bring millions of new users onto the platform.

NBSL has been aggressively working on building a captive audience for the BHIM app that National Payments Council of India hived off to the wholly owned subsidiary in 2024. Monthly transactions on the app increased to 244 million in May 2026 from 79.64 million in June 2025. The platform last month processed transactions worth Rs 26,952 crore.


NBSL is working with the government to build on this momentum, Nataraj said. "The government wants to do DBT on our app, and we are also working on bringing in pension schemes. Several government schemes, digitisation of these services is untapped, and we're seen as a neutral entity. Similarly, with banks, they're all untapped markets for us," Nataraj told ET.

The company is exploring digitisation initiatives for self-help groups. According to Nataraj, the objective is to bring women and those associated with SHGs into the formal digital ecosystem by tapping into their entire financial journey, including digital loan disbursements, repayments and collections.

"DBT and SHGs are not an area that everybody wants to play in. These are very tough and difficult areas,” she said. “It starts right from giving them a digital loan. Then, how will you repay? Set up a mandate. So, it's an entire cycle and chain, and then they would start using our app for other payments as well.”

These services are part of BHIM's plan to eventually become a financial services platform as it looks for new sources of revenue.

While the app currently distributes credit cards and has a credit score feature, it plans to roll out loan distribution over the next two-three months and later add insurance and investment products through partnerships with banks and financial institutions

The move comes as UPI continues to grapple with monetisation challenges because of the current regime of no processing charge on UPI debit transactions between bank accounts.

"Financial services will unlock a revenue model for us. It is very difficult to make revenue in payments. Right now, we are just a payment app. The revenue model is actually absent," Nataraj said.

The BHIM app reported a loss of Rs 68 crore on revenue of Rs 3.7 crore for fiscal 2025. Nataraj said the company is likely to remain loss-making for at least the first three years of being hived off as it continues to invest in technology and customer acquisition.

BHIM is the sixth largest UPI app, with a share of 1% in a market dominated by PhonePay and Google Pay. Nataraj expects the share to grow to 1.25% by the end of this fiscal year.

The company is also betting on new products such as UPI Circle, which allows users to delegate spending limits to family members, to drive the next wave of UPI adoption.

Nataraj said UPI Circle, along with DBT programmes, SHG digitisation and assisted onboarding through banks, could help bring the next 100 million users onto the UPI ecosystem.

Beyond payments, BHIM is also positioning itself as a technology provider to banks. After deploying its UPI stack for Canara Bank, the company is in talks with several public and private sector lenders to power their digital payments infrastructure, creating another potential revenue stream.