Wallets/fonepay
Fonepay
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Overview
Fonepay is Nepal's national QR payment network, operated by Fonepay Payment Service Limited — an F1Soft Group sister-company to eSewa [1, 2, np-cro]. 20+ million users + 1.7+ million merchants + all 77 NP districts covered.
March 30, 2025 — Fonepay set single-day record: 1,002,702 merchant QR payments + Rs 26.28 billion volume in one day [3].
Cross-border integration record (2025):
- March 2025 — One year of cross-border UPI QR payments [4]: UPI transactions in Nepal crossed 1 million + Rs 2 billion total value.
- August 2025 — Alipay+ partnership [wiki-fonepay-alipay]: Enables cross-border QR payments from Alipay+ partner wallets in Nepal.
- May 2026 — UnionPay International integration [5]: UnionPay users make QR-based payments at 2+ million merchants across Nepal.
Tourism context: Nepal welcomed 1.15+ million tourists in 2025 — Fonepay's cross-border integration accepts international travellers from 11+ countries including China, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Germany, Italy.
History
2010 — Fonepay launches by F1Soft [2]: Nepal's pioneering QR + payment network.
2010-2024 — Nationwide expansion [1]: All 77 NP districts, multi-million users + merchants.
March 2024 — Cross-border UPI launches [4]: Nepal ↔ India UPI inbound payments.
March 30, 2025 — Single-day record: 1M+ QR transactions, Rs 26.28B volume [3].
August 2025 — Alipay+ partnership [wiki-fonepay-alipay].
May 2026 — UnionPay International integration [5].
Ownership & operator
Operating entity: Fonepay Payment Service Limited — sister-company to eSewa under F1Soft Group.
Parent: F1Soft Group (Nepal fintech conglomerate).
Regulator: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).
Technical integration
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Type | Nepal national QR payment network + interbank rail (not consumer wallet — payment network supporting wallets/banks) |
| National rail | [[fonepay-qr]] (Nepal national QR standard) |
| Cross-border | UPI (India inbound, Mar 2024+) + Alipay+ (Aug 2025+) + UnionPay International (May 2026+) |
| Merchants | 1.7+ million |
| Users | 20+ million (via affiliated banks + wallets) |
| Coverage | All 77 NP districts |
| Tourism inbound | 11+ countries (China + SK + MY + SG + PH + TH + DE + IT etc.) |
Users & growth
2025 baseline [1]:
- Users: 20+ million (via affiliated banks + wallets)
- Merchants: 1.7+ million
- Coverage: All 77 NP districts
- March 30, 2025 single-day record: 1,002,702 merchant QR payments / Rs 26.28B
- March 2025 UPI cumulative: 1M+ transactions / Rs 2B value (1-year)
Tourism (2025): 1.15M+ tourists welcomed; FonePay supports 11+ inbound-country wallets.
Use cases
Merchant QR payments (Nepal national rail); P2P transfers via bank/wallet integration; cross-border inbound tourist payments (UPI India + Alipay+ partners + UnionPay International); merchant onboarding via affiliated banks/wallets.
Implementations & partners
Operator: Fonepay Payment Service Limited (F1Soft Group).
Affiliated wallets: [[esewa]] (F1Soft sister; 10M+ users), [[khalti]] (Janaki Technology), IME Pay (Global IME Bank-affiliated).
Cross-border partners: NPCI (UPI India) + Ant Group ([[alipay-plus]]) + UnionPay International.
Regulator: Nepal Rastra Bank.
Fun facts
- 20M+ users + 1.7M+ merchants — Nepal's dominant QR rail.
- All 77 NP districts covered.
- March 30, 2025 single-day record: 1M+ QR transactions + Rs 26.28B.
- First Nepali rail with cross-border UPI (March 2024+).
- Alipay+ partnership August 2025.
- UnionPay International integration May 2026 — 2M+ NP merchants accept UnionPay.
- 11+ tourist-inbound countries supported.
- F1Soft Group sister to eSewa — distinctive integrated NP fintech ecosystem.
Comparison
| Feature | Fonepay | [[upi]] (India cross-border interop) | duitnow-qr (MY) | unified-cross-border-qr (China) | [[promptpay]] (TH cross-border interop) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Fonepay Payment Service Limited (F1Soft sister) | NPCI India | PayNet | China UnionPay + PCAC | BoT |
| Type | NP national QR rail + cross-border inbound (UPI + Alipay+ + UnionPay) | IN national A2A rail + cross-border (NP + SG + AE + FR) | MY national QR | China cross-border QR | TH national QR + cross-border (8 ASEAN) |
| Country | Nepal | India | Malaysia | China | Thailand |
| Users | 20M+ via affiliated wallets/banks | 600M+ UPI IDs | National | China-scale | 60M+ |
| Cross-border inbound | UPI + Alipay+ + UnionPay (Mar 2024-May 2026) | TH + SG + UAE + FR via bilateral | Singapore PayNow + IN | Alipay+ + UnionPay | 8 ASEAN PromptPay |
Status
Active, Nepal's dominant national QR rail with cross-border interop [1, 3]:
- Fonepay Payment Service Limited (F1Soft Group sister to eSewa) since 2010.
- 20M+ users + 1.7M+ merchants + all 77 NP districts.
- March 30, 2025 single-day record: 1M+ QR txn / Rs 26.28B.
- Cross-border UPI (Mar 2024) + Alipay+ (Aug 2025) + UnionPay (May 2026).
- NRB-regulated.
Sources
- 1 Fonepay — official
- 2 Fonepay QR payment NP — Fonepay blog
- 3 Fonepay 1M single-day record — Fonepay blog
- 4 Fonepay 1 year cross-border UPI — Sharesansar
- 5 Fonepay × UnionPay May 2026 — Kathmandu Post
- wiki-fonepay-alipay Fonepay × Alipay+ — Kathmandu Post
- np-cro In-corpus:
reports/countries/NP-nepal.md
Source
Biography extracted from fonepay.md. See matrix.md for standards-support matrix if present.