Sri Lanka’s super app, PickMe – how API fueled its growth
Unique API solution proved pivotal for growth of Sri Lanka’s super-app PickMe, whose goal was to enhance payment capabilities for drivers and customers.
In the highly competitive world of super-apps, PickMe was looking to enhance its payment and collection capabilities. With this, it aimed to improve the app experience for its customers and thousands of drivers across Sri Lanka. Standard Chartered’s unique API connectivity solution was the answer, and a first for PickMe in Sri Lanka.
Background
PickMe is an app developed by Digital Mobility Solutions Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, which specialises in the provision of mobility solutions. The app facilitates a real-time connection between consumers and various service providers in Sri Lanka, to provide transport and other forms of conveniences. It enables mutual engagement for the receipt and delivery of services – predominantly taxis and food.
Standard Chartered’s Role
Despite that API connectivity was unavailable in Sri Lanka at that point, Standard Chartered Bank took the lead and collaborated with product, technology, and other relevant teams to create an API based solution for PickME.
This yielded numerous benefits for PickMe as it allowed drivers to have 24/7 access to funds, eliminated the need for drivers to setup and maintain new accounts, increased efficiency in the driver onboarding process and increased driver enrolment. Instant, 24/7 collections with real-time alerts provided PickMe with complete visibility of payment transactions. This further enabled fast and automated reconciliation.
Deal structure
PickMe was looking to strengthen its payments and collections solution. The objective was to provide better availability of instant credit and varied payment settlement options beyond fund transfer to one of two local banks in Sri Lanka – the latter requiring drivers to maintain accounts with designated local banks instead of their choice bank.
On the payment collections front, the billing of a vast corporate client base was on a credit line basis with manual, paper-based receipts. It could improve the inefficient collections and manual reconciliation process, which was causing delays in the release of credit line sales to corporates.
To meet PickMe’s objective, Standard Chartered implemented an API based solution utilising new technology with instant payments and collections to resolve PickMe’s challenges.
Case study report
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