Razorpay POS Wins First Prize at RBI’s Global Hackathon for ‘DrishtiPay’, Which Facilitates Ease-to-Use Digital Payments For Visually-Impaired

Razorpay, India’s Leading Full-Stack Payments, and Banking Platform for Businesses has secured the top spot at the RBI’s 2nd Global Hackathon – ‘HaRBInger 2023‘ for its remarkable product, ‘DrishtiPay‘, which facilitates easy-to-use, innovative Card and UPI payments for the visually impaired.

Shri T. Rabi Sankar – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India (in the middle) presenting the award to the Razorpay POS team

Designed by Razorpay’s POS Team (earlier known as Ezetap), the solution ‘DrishtiPay‘ integrates with UPI apps and cards, to facilitate digital payments for the visually impaired. DrishtiPay operates seamlessly with feature phones, even in the absence of an internet connection, in case of card transactions. With a tap of a card or through an NFC-enabled phone, it allows visually impaired users to provide OTP securely for transacting instead of struggling to enter a PIN. DrishtiPay is designed to contribute to the ease and accessibility of financial services while bringing efficiency and inclusion. The prestigious award was presented by Shri T. Rabi Sankar, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, recognizing the exceptional innovation and inclusivity brought forth by DrishtiPay.

The HaRBInger hackathon’s second edition was launched in February’23 with the theme ‘Inclusive Digital Services’. In October, it received proposals from 154 teams spanning various countries, including India, Australia, Canada, Germany, Singapore, Sweden, the UK, and the USA. The competition sought innovative ideas in four key areas:

• User-friendly digital banking services for differently-abled individuals;

• RegTech solutions to streamline compliance for Regulated Entities (REs);

• Exploring use cases for Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in retail transactions, even in offline scenarios;

• Enhancements to improve Transactions Per Second (TPS) and blockchain scalability.

During the initial phase, 28 proposals were shortlisted by external expert judges, across the four problem statements. The final evaluation phase occurred on October 10-11, 2023, in Bengaluru, where 28 finalist teams presented their solutions for the designated problem statements to the panel of jurors who evaluated the winners and runners-up based on parameters like innovation, technology, demonstration, user experience, security and ease of implementation, among others.

Proud of this accomplishment, Byas Nambisan, Head of Razorpay POS said, “DrishtiPay is a shining example of whats possible when technology and empathy converge. With its seamless features and accessibility for differently-abled, senior citizens, and special needs alike, DrishtiPay is the bridge towards inclusivity and technological advancement. Our Razors have always been the backbone of our innovation and we are thrilled that our team has won. The future holds even more exciting possibilities, and were excited to see how razors will further push the boundaries.”

The POS device enabled with DrishtiPay is meticulously engineered to articulate transactions in the customers preferred language, offering a personalized and inclusive experience, while the merchants interface remains in their chosen language. In addition to its proficiency in facilitating card payments, DrishtiPay is designed to enhance the efficiency of UPI transactions by seamlessly integrating with well-established UPI applications.

Meet the brains behind the innovative product from Razorpay POS Team:

• Anand N A, Senior Director, Product QA Engineering & Program Management

• Apurva Gupta, Senior Manager, Product Development Engineering

• Bhaskar Chatterjee, Vice President, Product Management

• Deepak Nair, Associate Director, Product Development Engineering

• Mohit Srivastava, Manager, Product Development Engineering

• Raghav Gupta, Product Development Engineer

About Razorpay

Razorpay, a full-stack financial services company helps Indian businesses with comprehensive and innovative solutions built over robust technology to address the entire length and breadth of the payment and banking journey for any business. Established in 2014, the company provides technology payment solutions to over 10 Mn businesses. Founded by alumni of IIT Roorkee, Shashank Kumar, and Harshil Mathur, Razorpay is the second Indian company to be a part of Silicon Valley’s largest tech accelerator, Y Combinator. Marquee investors such as Lone Pine Capital, Alkeon Capital, TCV, GIC, Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Y Combinator, and MasterCard have invested a total of $741.5 Mn through Series A to F in funding. A few angel investors have also invested in Razorpay’s mission to simplify payments and business banking and redefine how finance works in India.

For more information, please visit razorpay.com.