How MobiKwik Launched Fixed Deposits for 140M+ Users with Blostem

The Background

MobiKwik is one of India's leading digital payments and financial services platforms, with over 140 million registered users. Known for its wallet, UPI payments, BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later), and credit products, MobiKwik has built deep trust with India's mobile-first consumers.

As MobiKwik evolved its super-app strategy — expanding beyond payments into wealth and savings — Fixed Deposits emerged as a natural addition. The reasoning was clear:

• User demand: MobiKwik's users already managed money through the app. FDs were the most-requested savings product.
• Revenue diversification: With UPI margins under pressure, FD commissions offered a new, recurring revenue stream based on AUM rather than transaction volume.
• Engagement: Unlike payments (which are transactional), FDs create ongoing reasons for users to return — portfolio tracking, interest monitoring, maturity alerts.
• No licensing barrier: FD distribution doesn't require a SEBI license, IRDAI registration, or banking license. MobiKwik could offer FDs as a technology channel without additional regulatory overhead.

The Challenge

MobiKwik's engineering and product teams evaluated the build-vs-buy decision and quickly understood the scale of the challenge with building in-house:

Multi-bank integration complexity: Each bank issuer had different APIs, different KYC flows, different payment gateways, and different rate structures. Building for one bank would take 3-6 months. Offering multiple issuers — essential for competitive rate comparison — would take over a year.

RBI compliance workload: Aadhaar eKYC consent capture, VKYC scheduling for new-to-bank customers, DICGC disclosure management, TDS information display, Form 15H/15G support — each requirement was a separate engineering and legal workstream.

Core business priority: MobiKwik's engineering team was focused on payments, wallet, BNPL, and credit products. Diverting 6-8 engineers for 6+ months to build FD infrastructure would slow core product development at a critical growth stage.

Speed to market: Multiple fintech platforms were exploring FD distribution. The competitive window was limited. MobiKwik needed to launch in weeks, not months.

Why Blostem

MobiKwik selected Blostem's white-label FD infrastructure for four reasons:

1. Multi-Issuer from Day One

Instead of integrating with one bank at a time, Blostem gave MobiKwik access to multiple bank and NBFC issuers through a single SDK integration. Users could compare rates across Small Finance Banks (offering 8.5-9.5%), commercial banks, and NBFCs — all within the MobiKwik app.

2. True White-Label Depth

MobiKwik has a distinctive brand personality — vibrant, playful, consumer-friendly. A generic FD booking flow wouldn't match. Blostem's white-label architecture supported deep brand customization:

| Brand Element | MobiKwik Implementation | |--------------|----------------------| | Primary color | MobiKwik blue (#0A4BFF) | | Button style | Pill-shaped (46px border radius) | | Font | Figtree — matching MobiKwik's app typography | | Animation style | Bounce animations, moderate intensity | | Design personality | Playful — consistent with MobiKwik's consumer app feel | | FD activation celebration | Confetti burst with daily earnings counter |

The result: a MobiKwik user completing an FD booking sees MobiKwik's colors, fonts, button styles, and celebration animations. The experience is indistinguishable from a native MobiKwik feature.

3. Compliance Handled End-to-End

Blostem's platform included RBI-compliant KYC infrastructure:

• PAN verification via NSDL
• Aadhaar eKYC with consent capture and audit trails
• VKYC scheduling and tracking for bank FD issuers
• DICGC badge management (auto-enabled for banks, auto-suppressed for NBFCs)

MobiKwik's legal and compliance teams reviewed and approved the flows — but didn't need to build any of it.

4. Zero Ongoing Engineering Maintenance

After the initial SDK integration, MobiKwik's engineering team returned to their core products. All FD infrastructure — rate updates, new issuer onboarding, compliance changes, feature enhancements — is maintained by Blostem.

When a new issuer joins the platform or a regulatory requirement changes, MobiKwik's users automatically benefit without any engineering work on MobiKwik's side.

The Implementation

The onboarding followed Blostem's standard partner launch workflow:

| Phase | Duration | What Happened | |-------|----------|--------------| | Day 0: Preparation | 1 day | MobiKwik provided brand assets (logo, hex colors, font preference), feature preferences, and legal sign-offs (T&C URL, privacy policy, consent text) | | Day 1: Configuration | 4-6 hours | Blostem's CMS team configured the complete MobiKwik theme — 102+ design tokens, 30+ feature toggles, 130+ content strings. All via CMS, no code written. | | Day 2: Validation | 2-4 hours | Automated validation: accessibility checks, compliance verification, end-to-end smoke tests. Preview URL shared with MobiKwik's product team. | | Week 1-2: SDK Integration | 1-2 weeks | MobiKwik's engineering team (1-2 engineers) integrated the Blostem SDK into the MobiKwik app using documented APIs. | | Go-Live | — | FD booking went live in the MobiKwik app. |

Total calendar time from decision to live users: under 2 weeks. Total MobiKwik engineering effort: 1-2 engineers for 1-2 weeks.

The Results

New User Segment Reached

A significant portion of MobiKwik FD users are booking a Fixed Deposit for the first time. These are payments-first users who discovered FDs as a natural extension of money management within the app — users who would not have walked into a bank branch or visited a bank's website to open an FD.

This "first-time FD investor" segment is particularly valuable: they're digitally native, app-comfortable, and likely to continue using the platform for future savings products.

Higher App Engagement

Users who book FDs through MobiKwik show higher app open rates and longer session durations compared to payments-only users. The portfolio dashboard, maturity timeline, and interest tracking features create ongoing reasons to return to the app.

Multi-Issuer Comparison Drives Satisfaction

Users actively compare rates across issuers before booking. The availability of multiple banks and NBFCs within a single flow — from Small Finance Banks at 8.5-9.5% to established NBFCs at 7-8.5% — gives users confidence they're getting competitive rates.

Trust Transfer

MobiKwik's brand trust extends to the FD booking experience. Users trust FDs booked through MobiKwik because the experience feels completely native to the app — not a third-party redirect to an unfamiliar interface.

What's Next

The MobiKwik-Blostem partnership continues to expand:

• Post-booking features: Portfolio dashboard with real-time interest tracking, maturity alerts, and renewal nudges
• Additional issuers: New bank and NBFC partners being added to give users wider rate selection
• Recurring Deposits (RDs): Extending the same infrastructure to RD products for systematic savings
• Referral program: Enabling users to refer friends for FD bookings

MobiKwik's investment in Blostem (6.79% strategic stake) underscores the depth of the partnership. When a distribution partner invests in the infrastructure provider, the alignment between product quality, distribution success, and business growth is complete.

Key Takeaways for Fintechs

The MobiKwik implementation demonstrates several principles:

1. Speed beats completeness at launch: Starting with a white-label platform meant MobiKwik launched in weeks, not months. Additional issuers and features were added incrementally.

2. Brand depth matters: Users trust FDs more when the experience matches the app they know. Generic or redirected flows break trust.

3. First-time investors are the opportunity: The largest untapped segment isn't experienced investors — it's the hundreds of millions of digital-first users who've never booked an FD but would if the experience were seamless.

4. Compliance is a feature, not a burden: Having compliance infrastructure built-in (KYC, VKYC, DICGC, consent management) isn't overhead — it's what makes the product trustworthy.

5. FDs are a retention engine: Unlike transactional products, FDs create ongoing engagement. The portfolio view is visited repeatedly. Maturity events are re-engagement opportunities.

---

Blostem powers FD distribution for MobiKwik, Zerodha, Jio, Jupiter, Upstox, and more. Launch FDs in your app.