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Zeta has launched passkey-based authentication for RuPay card payments with Pluxee. The service is now live for Pluxee RuPay prepaid cardholders in India.
The launch offers an alternative to SMS one-time passwords for eligible online transactions on the RuPay network. After a one-time registration, cardholders can approve payments through a passkey stored on their device and verified by fingerprint, facial recognition or a device PIN.
The rollout comes as India's payments sector moves toward stronger authentication methods amid rising digital fraud. Reserve Bank of India rules have opened the way for alternatives to conventional OTP-based checks, while the National Payments Corporation of India has enabled the feature on the RuPay network.
Zeta built the full payment flow for Pluxee, covering registration, credential management, authentication and transaction completion. During initial registration, a cardholder receives one OTP to confirm both the passkey setup and the transaction. Later, eligible purchases can then be completed without another SMS OTP.
For cardholders, the change reduces the steps at checkout. Instead of waiting for a message, retrieving a code and entering it, users can authenticate directly on their device.
Early observations from the implementation show passkey authentication usually takes about five to seven seconds, compared with roughly 15 to 25 seconds for a conventional OTP flow. Passkey registration typically takes seven to eight seconds and has shown completion rates of about 99%.
The shift also reflects a broader change in payment authentication design. Rather than relying on credentials transmitted over SMS, passkeys use cryptographic credentials tied to a specific device, making phishing and social engineering attacks harder to carry out.
That matters as digital payment fraud has grown sharply in India. According to Reserve Bank of India data cited by the companies, digital payment fraud in India crossed ₹21,367 crore in FY2025, more than five times the previous year, while UPI fraud cases rose 85% year on year.
RuPay has also expanded its role in the country's card market. UPI-linked RuPay credit cards now account for nearly 38% of credit card payments in India by volume, up from 10% two years earlier. RuPay's overall credit card market share has risen from 3% to 16% over the same period, according to the cited figures.
Industry shift
The launch makes Pluxee one of the early adopters of passkey authentication for RuPay card payments. It also gives Zeta a reference deployment as issuers and payment providers look for ways to meet tougher security requirements without adding friction to online purchases.
Passkeys are already widely used to log into digital accounts and services. Their use in card payments marks a notable extension into transaction authentication, where regulators and payment networks are under pressure to reduce fraud without hurting payment completion rates.
Merchants could also benefit if fewer customers abandon purchases during authentication. A shorter process can reduce checkout drop-off, while device-bound credentials may limit exposure to some forms of card-not-present fraud and related chargebacks.
Ramki Gaddipati outlined the broader significance of the launch in the context of regulatory and fraud trends.
"The RBI's push for stronger authentication mechanisms beyond OTPs, particularly in the wake of rising digital-payment fraud, is an important inflection point for the industry. The larger shift underway is from authentication based on credentials that can be intercepted or socially engineered to cryptographic trust that can be bound to a device, an identity and ultimately the context of a transaction.
"Passkeys are an important step in that direction. Over time, we expect authentication to become increasingly invisible, contextual and risk-aware, with stronger assurance built into the transaction rather than added as friction around it. What we are bringing live with Pluxee on RuPay is an early manifestation of how we believe digital-payment authentication will evolve," said Ramki Gaddipati, Co-founder, APAC CEO and Global CTO, Zeta.
For Pluxee, the change is aimed at everyday consumer spending rather than a niche payment use case. The company's RuPay prepaid cards are used for routine purchases, making the checkout experience central to adoption and repeat use.
"Our cardholders use their Pluxee cards for everyday purchases, making a seamless and secure payment experience a priority for us. Passkey authentication is a meaningful step toward making digital payments simpler and faster while maintaining strong security. We are pleased to bring this capability to our RuPay cardholders in partnership with Zeta and NPCI," said Anish Sarkar, Managing Director, Pluxee India and Director, India, Philippines and Indonesia Cluster.
Zeta is working with other RuPay issuers to extend passkey-based authentication to a broader base of cardholders. The company has more than 1,700 employees globally, and customers using its platform have issued more than 25 million cards.