New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS): Online food delivery platform Swiggy on Wednesday announced the launch of 'Swiggy UPI', integrating National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) digital payments solution to deliver faster in-app experience for customers.

Users can now complete UPI transactions without leaving the Swiggy app, reducing the payment process from five steps to just one, the food aggregator said in a statement.

“This feature aligns with Swiggy’s mission to enable unparalleled convenience to consumers as UPI emerges as one of the most preferred payment methods,” said Anurag Panganamamula, Head of Revenue and Growth at Swiggy.

The new feature is powered by Juspay's HyperUPI Plugin and eliminates the need for the redirection to third-party UPI apps.

In April this year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted that India recorded approximately 131 billion UPI transactions.

As UPI continues to gain popularity, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is encouraging more entities to integrate UPI services.

“By removing the redirection to third party apps, Swiggy UPI gives a simplified and delightful user experience cutting transaction time from over 15 seconds to just 5 seconds,” said the company.

Customers can complete their one-time setup process to link their bank accounts by going to the app’s payment page and selecting Swiggy UPI.

Post this setup, for every transaction, they will only need to enter this UPI PIN, ensuring quicker transactions.

“Moreover, the in-house plug-in experience will immediately inform customers of any issues such as insufficient funds, incorrect credentials or technical issues, in the payment journey, allowing them to take informed actions and complete their payments successfully,” said Swiggy.

In July, the UPI-based transactions surged to reach Rs 20.64 lakh crore against Rs 20.07 lakh crore in the previous month. The total UPI transaction count went up almost 4 per cent (month-on-month) to 14.44 billion in July from 13.89 billion in the previous month.