Glomo Secures Visa Principal Membership
Glomo, a regulated payment service provider licensed by the GIFT International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), announced that it has obtained Visa’s Principal Member status, making it the first GIFT IFSC‑licensed PSP and the first non‑bank acquirer in India to achieve this designation.
As a Visa Principal Member, Glomo can now process Visa‑powered card payments directly for merchants it acquires, eliminating the need to route transactions through another institution’s acquiring licence. This direct acquiring arrangement gives Glomo control over merchant onboarding, payment processing, settlement, risk policies, fraud monitoring, dispute and chargeback handling, and commercial terms. The company says the capability will significantly shorten onboarding and processing times compared with traditional banking channels and reduce unnecessary foreign‑exchange conversion costs.
Glomo intends to deploy the membership across its merchant network, which includes exporters, artificial‑intelligence‑driven marketplace platforms, software‑as‑a‑service (SaaS) firms, financial‑services companies, education platforms and other enterprises that serve customers in multiple countries. The firm also plans to leverage the status to strengthen its card‑infrastructure, including the development of issuing products.
Akash Arun, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Glomo, stated that cross‑border card payments often involve multiple intermediaries that create friction in settlement, transaction approvals, risk management and dispute handling, and that the Visa Principal Membership provides Glomo with direct control over these critical components, delivering more predictable settlement and a consistent merchant experience. Rishi Chhabra, Country Manager for India at Visa, welcomed Glomo’s entry, noting that trusted and secure payment infrastructure is essential as Indian businesses expand internationally and that Visa’s network will support merchants in accepting payments, managing risk and serving customers across markets.
The announcement underscores the growing importance of the GIFT IFSC as a hub for globally connected financial infrastructure and signals a broader move by Indian firms toward unified platforms that combine global payment collection, payouts, treasury management, outward remittances, identity verification and compliance capabilities.