IPO-bound India1 Payments Ltd, which is currently rolling out 300-400 ATMs in a month, is hopeful of deploying over 20,000 such machines in next 4-5 years to ensure cash availability to customers in semi-urban and rural areas, its MD and CEO K Srinivas said on Sunday.

“The hike in interchange fees by RBI coupled with various structural growth drivers, including expected increase in cash withdrawal transactions, will accelerate White Label ATMs deployments in the country,” he said.

The ATMs which are set up, owned and operated by non-bank entities are known as White Label ATMs (WLAs).

At present, the Bengaluru-headquartered company operates a network of 10,300 WLAs and deploys its ATMs under the brand name of “india1ATMs”.

It is the second largest ATM brand in the semi-urban and rural areas after State Bank of India (SBI).

India1 Payments, promoted by the Banktech Group of Australia and formerly known as BTI Payments, has installed these machines mostly in semi-urban and rural areas across 14 states and union territories.

“In the calendar year 2021 India1 has rolled out in excess of 3,000 ATMs and likely to continue at the same pace in next 4-5 years given the low penetration of ATMs in semi-urban and rural India. That should put India1 in good stead to be a large ATM network with over 20,000 ATMs,” Srinivas told PTI.

He further said the company will continue to focus on states like UP, Bihar and West Bengal which has low penetration of ATMs.

The company focuses on ensuring availability of cash in its ATMs, especially those located in rural areas.

“We are mindful that when a customer comes to our ATMs in rural areas after travelling 8-9 kms then he should be able to withdraw money,” he said.

Srinivas said the company may consider deploying ATMs in the northeast region next year. Currently, the company has no presence in the area.

“We are committed to improving financial inclusion through accessibility of our ATM services in the under-penetrated semi-urban and rural areas of the country,” he said.

According to the latest data from the RBI as of September, there were 2.4 lakh ATMs in the country, of them around 28,000 are white-label machines.

The company has grown over 15 per cent over last year and accounts for more than 50 per cent of incremental ATMs deployed in this period.

It services over 72 million customer transactions and facilitates a gross transaction value of over Rs 13,600 crore every quarter on an average.

On the company’s future growth strategy, Srinivas said the company will continue to expand ATM network in semi-urban and rural regions, improve local operational capabilities and drive profitability through customer engagement and cost optimization. In addition, the company will focus on offering the micro-ATM services in remotest areas among others, he added.

India1 Payments, promoted by Banktech Group, was incorporated in the year 2006 and subsequently invested by ICICI Ventures in 2013.

The company, which has already received Sebi’s go-ahead to float initial share-sale, plans to come out with its public issue in coming months.

The initial public offering (IPO) comprises fresh issuance of equity shares worth Rs 150 crore and an offer of sale (OFS) of 1.03 crore equity shares by promoters and investors.

The OFS consists of sale of 1 lakh equity shares by the Banktech Group, up to 25.08 lakh equity shares by BTI Payments Singapore, up to 49.94 lakh equity shares by India Advantage Fund S3 I, up to 24.86 lakh equity shares by India Advantage Fund S4 I and up to 2.16 lakh equity shares by Dynamic India Fund S4 US.

Proceeds from the fresh issue will be utilized to repay debt, for funding capital expenditure requirements of the company, setting up of ATMs in India and general corporate purposes.