MAM
Pepperfry & Infra.Market partner to elevate CX and product range
Mumbai: E-commerce furniture and home décor company – Pepperfry and Infra.Market, a construction materials company with its in-house brand Ivas, have announced a partnership to enhance customer experience and expand product offerings. Pepperfry products will be available in Infra.Market stores, while Ivas will be featured in Pepperfry locations, creating a one-stop destination for home needs.
Starting from October, the companies will launch store-in-store (SIS) formats of Pepperfry in Infra.Market locations in cities including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolhapur, Sangli, Aurangabad, Alibaug, Panvel, Nagpur, and Nashik. Ivas will also support Pepperfry’s modular furniture segment in stores across Mumbai, Pune, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, and Kolkata. This collaboration will provide a curated selection from multiple brands, allowing customers to visualise and plan their projects effectively.
Over the next three months, Pepperfry plans to establish more than 20 SIS formats in Infra.Market stores, while Ivas aims to increase its presence in Pepperfry locations.
Speaking about the partnership, Pepperfry co-founder and CEO Ashish Shah said, “This partnership with Infra.Market and Ivas, reiterates our mission to deliver a comprehensive and seamless home solutions experience to our customers. With this collaboration, we can leverage each other’s extensive network of stores and supply chain infrastructure to enhance our offering and provide a one-stop destination for all home needs to our customers – from tiles, custom modular furniture, electricals, paints, sanitaryware to home decor, mattress and furniture, all under one roof. Customers across these cities will now have access to 1,000s of brands and 100s of product categories through a unique omnichannel experience.”
The collaboration aims to meet the demand for comprehensive home and construction material solutions by introducing dedicated sections in Infra.Market and Pepperfry stores, featuring building materials alongside home furnishings.
Ivas, backed by Infra.Market, is transforming the home building and renovation sector by offering a wide range of products, including tiles, slabs, quartz, sanitaryware, bath fittings, fans, lighting, appliances, modular kitchens and wardrobes, designer hardware, and laminates.
Infra.Market co-founder Aaditya Sharda added, “Our partnership with Pepperfry marks a significant step in our commitment to simplifying home building by offering customers unparalleled access to diverse solutions that meet their needs.” He further added, “At Ivas, we understand that homemakers invest their hearts into creating comfortable spaces. Our collaboration with Pepperfry enhances this endeavor by seamlessly connecting high-quality building materials with stylish décor options. Together, we are addressing the diverse needs of homeowners across India by bridging construction and furnishing, ultimately transforming houses into dream homes.”
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
