Pine Labs — a payments technology unicorn backed by Sequoia India and Temasek — is eyeing one million users in a year through its phone-based payments solution with the Reserve Bank of India enhancing the limits of contactless card payments from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 effective from January.

Pine Labs on Wednesday launched the AllTap app to help small merchants with contactless card payment acceptance. The new app will help merchants start accepting digital payments on their NFC-enabled smartphone without the need of any additional hardware like POS (point of sale) machines.

The “tap and pay” feature within the app is secure and is certified by PCI Security Standards Council, RuPay, Visa, Mastercard and Amex.

“AllTap needs no additional hardware for merchants to start accepting digital payments, their NFC-enabled smartphone can become a payments acceptance device. This can help small merchants, taxi drivers, self-employed individuals, tuition-givers, who want a simple digital payments acceptance solution,” Pine Labs CEO B. Amrish Rau said. Pine Labs will also take this solution to other markets in South East Asia and West Asia, Rau said.

Incorporated in Singapore, Pine Labs’ key investors include Actis Capital, Mastercard, PayPal, Sequoia India and Temasek.