Hyderabad-based VIYONA Fintech, a fintech infrastructure startup, has received approval from the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), now rebranded as Bharat Connect, to operate as a Customer Operating Unit (COU). This certification allows the startup to offer interoperable digital bill payment services to customers across India. The approval marks another step in VIYONA’s journey from a niche payments technology provider into a full-stack player in the country’s digital payments stack.
What Is Bharat Connect?
Bharat Connect is the new identity of the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), an integrated, interoperable bill payment platform in India. It allows customers to pay electricity, water, gas, broadband, mobile recharge, DTH subscription, insurance premium, loan EMI, and education fee bills through a single network, using multiple payment modes such as UPI, cards, net banking, prepaid instruments, and cash.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) conceived the idea of a centralised bill payment system in 2013, following a committee headed by its Executive Director G. Padmanabhan that studied the feasibility of a Giro-based payment system. That study estimated that over 30,800 million bills worth about ₹6,223 billion were generated every year in the country’s top 20 cities alone, which highlighted the need for a standardised solution.
The system went live in 2017, initially with electricity billers and other key categories on board. The name Bharat Connect was adopted at the Global Fintech Fest 2024, where RBI Executive Director Vivek Deep announced the rebranding. The new name reflects a broader vision: the platform is intended to evolve beyond bill payments into a comprehensive transaction network that connects individuals and businesses.
How the Bharat Connect Network Works
Bharat Connect operates on a hub-and-spoke model with four distinct sets of participants. The entire system is regulated under the Bharat Bill Payment Systems Directions, 2024, issued by the RBI under the Payment and Settlement Systems (PSS) Act, 2007, which replaced the earlier guidelines from 2014.
The Central Unit: NPCI Bharat BillPay Limited
At the heart of the network is the Bharat Bill Pay Central Unit (BBPCU), a role performed by NPCI Bharat BillPay Limited (NBBL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The BBPCU sets the technical and business standards for the network, routes all transactions, and carries out clearing and settlement between participants.
NPCI itself was set up in 2008 under the PSS Act as an umbrella organisation for retail payments, promoted by the RBI and the Indian Banks’ Association. Beyond Bharat Connect, NPCI operates well-known systems such as UPI, RuPay, IMPS, and FASTag.
Biller Operating Units (BOUs)
Biller Operating Units (BOUs) are entities that onboard billers, such as electricity boards, telecom operators, and insurance companies, onto the Bharat Connect platform. They represent the biller side of the network and handle bill generation, presentation, and the collection of dues on behalf of billers. VIYONA received its BOU certification from NPCI Bharat BillPay in June 2026, before this latest approval.
Customer Operating Units (COUs)
Customer Operating Units (COUs) sit on the other side of the network. A COU is an entity that provides the customer-facing interface, digital or physical, through which people pay their bills. Banks, fintech platforms, and payment apps that display a “bill payments” section are all effectively operating as COUs.
The role of a COU includes maintaining user-friendly payment interfaces, onboarding agent institutions, routing customer payment requests to the central unit, providing instant confirmation of payments, and handling customer complaints and disputes. COUs can reach customers through digital channels such as mobile apps and websites, or physical outlets such as bank branches, business correspondent points, and retail stores.
What the COU Approval Means for VIYONA
VIYONA, which describes itself as a fintech infrastructure startup, now has the credentials to offer BBPS-powered bill payment services across electricity, water, gas, broadband, mobile recharges, DTH subscriptions, insurance premiums, loan EMIs, educational fees, and other approved categories.
The approval also enables banks, NBFCs, fintech companies, enterprises, and government organisations to integrate bill payment services through VIYONA’s platform and provide secure digital payment experiences to their own customers. In effect, VIYONA becomes the technology layer through which a financial institution can plug its customers into the Bharat Connect network without building the infrastructure itself.
The certification adds to VIYONA’s growing portfolio of NPCI certifications, which already includes UPI Switch (for both issuer and acquirer services), IMPS, Banking Connect, BOU, and eKYC Setu. The company’s founder and CEO, Ravindranath Yarlagadda, has said the certification will help banks, fintechs, enterprises, and billers deliver seamless bill payment experiences at scale, giving users a more convenient and trusted way to manage routine payments.
VIYONA also operates the rural-focused platform GRAAMPAY, which supports digital collections, payouts, and UPI transactions for farmers, small merchants, and local communities. The company received NPCI approval in September 2025 to operate as a third-party application provider (TPAP), a role that lets it offer UPI services in collaboration with partner banks.
Why This Matters: India’s Expanding Bill Payment Ecosystem
Bharat Connect has become one of India’s most heavily used payment rails. The platform processed 3.05 billion transactions in 2025, a 40% year-on-year jump, while the total value of these transactions rose 93% to ₹14.84 trillion. The network currently connects more than 22,000 billers across 25-plus categories, serving over 1.2 crore users.
The scale of the network matters for two reasons. First, every additional certified COU strengthens the “spoke” of the hub-and-spoke model, meaning a customer who uses a small regional bank app can pay the bill of any biller boarded anywhere in the country, regardless of which unit onboarded that biller. This interoperability is the core design principle of the system.
Second, competition among COUs keeps costs down and reach wide. When companies like VIYONA certify as COUs, they typically target segments that large banks under-serve, such as tier II and tier III cities, rural markets, and small merchants. This aligns with the broader policy goal of financial inclusion, which RBI and NPCI have pursued through successive payment innovations.
The ecosystem also benefits billers directly. Onboarding onto Bharat Connect gives a biller access to every COU channel in the country at once, removing the need to build separate integrations with each bank or payment app. For customers, the system guarantees instant confirmation of payment through a unique BBPS reference number, which also serves as the basis for resolving disputes when they arise.
The Road Ahead
The rebranding of BBPS into Bharat Connect signals that the platform’s ambitions extend beyond utility bill payments. NPCI has been expanding the network into new areas, including business-to-business payments and more biller categories, and the broader mandate announced alongside the rebranding points toward a transaction network that handles a wider range of payment flows.
For VIYONA, the COU certification completes a two-sided presence on the network: as a BOU it already helps billers collect payments, and as a COU it can now bring customer-facing channels to the network. This dual role is unusual for an infrastructure company and positions it to serve both sides of the market.
The practical impact will depend on how quickly VIYONA signs up institutional clients and how aggressively it pushes bill payment services into the rural and small-merchant segments it already serves through GRAAMPAY. Given the network’s growth trajectory, the company’s infrastructure credentials give it a credible starting point in a market where interoperability and certified technology providers are in high demand.
Key Takeaways
- Bharat Connect is the rebranded identity of the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), announced at the Global Fintech Fest 2024 by RBI Executive Director Vivek Deep.
- Hyderabad-based VIYONA Fintech received approval from Bharat Connect to operate as a Customer Operating Unit (COU), allowing it to offer interoperable bill payment services across India.
- The Bharat Connect network operates on a hub-and-spoke model, with NPCI Bharat BillPay Limited (NBBL), a wholly owned subsidiary of NPCI, serving as the Bharat Bill Pay Central Unit (BBPCU).
- NPCI was set up in 2008 under the Payment and Settlement Systems (PSS) Act, 2007, as an umbrella organisation for retail payments.
- Bharat Connect processed 3.05 billion transactions in 2025, up 40% year-on-year, with the total value rising 93% to ₹14.84 trillion.
- VIYONA also holds NPCI certifications for UPI Switch, IMPS, Banking Connect, BOU, and eKYC Setu, and operates the rural platform GRAAMPAY.
