Fintech firm BharatPe said on Tuesday it had received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a payments aggregator. The company will operate the platform through its subsidiary Resilient Payments, a statement said.

“This approval-in-principle will help advance our expansion plans, enabling us to reach millions of unbanked and underserved merchants with our digital payment acceptance solutions so they can be part of the Digital India story,” Negi and Nalin, interim CEO and CFO BharatPe.

The RBI’s final approval is subject to certain conditions, which the company is working towards fulfilling, it said. The Reserve Bank of India directed online non-bank payment aggregators to seek approval to start operations in 2020. Payment aggregators are companies that enable e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from customers without requiring the merchant to create a separate payment integration system.

Several companies have applied for RBI approval to operate as payment aggregators. While some have already been approved, the central bank recently directed Paytm to reapply for a license.

Founded in 2018, the company has tens of millions of merchants in 400 cities, operates Unified Payment Interface (UPI) offline transactions, and processes 18 crore monthly transactions. Global investors, including Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital, Beenext, Amplo and Sequoia Capital back the company.