MobiKwik and CRED launched digital rupee wallets for their users in January 2025, becoming the first non-banking fintech companies to offer India's central bank digital currency — known as the e-rupee or e₹ — to the public, following a regulatory change by the Reserve Bank of India that for the first time extended CBDC participation beyond the licensed banking sector to non-bank payment system operators.
MobiKwik's 167 million registered users became eligible to create e₹ wallets through the platform, while CRED extended the same functionality to its user base.
RBI OPENS CBDC TO PAYMENT FIRMS
The catalyst for both launches was the RBI's April 2024 decision to permit payment companies — not only licensed banks — to facilitate e-rupee transactions.
India's e-rupee has been in a phased pilot since late 2022, initially limited to a small number of partner banks and a restricted set of use cases in both the retail and wholesale segments.