Runa detailed its India payout offering in a 3 February 2025 product update, following a launch release dated 30 January. It said businesses could distribute INR-denominated rewards through hundreds of local merchants while Runa handled currency conversion. Named examples included Flipkart, Myntra, BigBasket, Shoppers Stop, PVR Cinema and Nykaa. The offering described merchant gift-card choices; it did not establish that every product was a bank-account transfer or that Runa issued the retailers’ cards. [1] [4]
Actual payment activity and the limits of market forecasts
Runa cited India’s digital-payment adoption as part of the rationale for entering the market. A Ministry of Finance release published on 1 December 2024 provides a measurable backdrop: its NPCI-sourced chart records October UPI transaction volumes of 4.21 billion in 2021, 7.30 billion in 2022, 11.40 billion in 2023 and 16.58 billion in 2024. These are payment-system observations made before the Runa announcement, rather than results of the new payout service. [1] [2]
India’s October UPI transaction volumes before the Runa launch
Four actual October monthly observations reproduced from the government release’s NPCI-sourced volume chart.
billion transactions
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
Whole-network UPI activity is context for India’s digital-payment environment. It is not gift-card spending, Runa volume, unique users or evidence that Runa’s launch caused growth. Figures are the source’s rounded monthly values, not annual totals.
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| Category | UPI financial transactions |
|---|---|
| October 2021 | 4.21 billion transactions |
| October 2022 | 7.30 billion transactions |
| October 2023 | 11.40 billion transactions |
| October 2024 | 16.58 billion transactions |
Gift-card market estimates need a separate date and definition. Runa’s update referred to an $8.9 billion Indian market and a 15.3% compound growth projection. A Research and Markets public summary issued on 21 March 2024 contains those same figures but identifies $8.9 billion as the estimated 2024 market value and 15.3% as the forecast compound annual rate for 2024–2028. That published forecast should not be recast as realised growth or silently moved forward to a new five-year period starting in 2025. The full commercial databook methodology was not available in the public summary reviewed. [1] [3]
Runa also said approximately 60–70% of the market was moving towards digital gift cards. Its update does not identify the denominator, fieldwork or study method behind that range, so it is retained as a provider claim rather than plotted as a verified market share. The company associated demand with ecommerce, corporate gifting and mobile payments, but the release does not isolate the contribution of those factors. [1]
For programme operators, the announced operational change was access to locally relevant merchant rewards and currency conversion within Runa’s international service. Existing customers were directed to their account manager to enable the offering. The launch materials did not provide Indian issuance volumes, redemption rates or recipient adoption, so neither the UPI series nor the market forecasts measure Runa’s commercial performance. [1] [4]
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Suzie Elis
Suzie Elis covers gift card products, digital gifting and distribution for Gift Card News.