How Digital Payments Are Scaling Delhi’s Busiest Businesses

Delhi has always held two worlds in the  same hand. The Red Fort stands a short walk from glass office towers. The shops of Chandni Chowk run on centuries-old infrastructure, yet their owners have never shied away from new ways to serve. That is the merchant spirit of this city: rooted, but never behind. Traders here have always served people from every corner of the country and abroad, and they have always found a way to keep up. Digital payments are simply the latest chapter in that story.

The chimes of PhonePe SmartSpeakers now ring through these streets, from Karol Bagh to Connaught Place, signaling a shift in how commerce moves. Bhojanam is one such business.

Bhojanam and Its Purpose to Serve 

‘Bhojanam’, meaning food, is a quick-service restaurant inside a Delhi hospital. Owned by Siddharth Manan, it serves doctors, patients, visitors, and hospital staff, people who have spent hours running around, getting medicines, meeting doctors, and standing by their loved ones. For them, a meal here is more than food. It is a moment of relief.

Siddharth’s goal is simple. He wants to take the worry off people by serving them good food. But in a hospital, quick service is not just a value-add. It is a necessity. And that pressure extends to every part of the experience, from the kitchen to the payments. Unfortunately, payments were the one place where this need for speed and clarity was not being met.

From Payment Pitfalls to Smooth Settlements

At Bhojanam, before PhonePe, payments were a source of friction. Transactions would frequently not go through. Settlements took longer than they should. And the dashboard for his then payment solution was difficult to navigate. As Siddharth puts it, “The user interface of their dashboard was not very friendly. Our accounts team could not notice what was going on, and that’s why we changed to PhonePe.”

For a restaurant that lives on speed and clarity, this uncertainty at the counter was unsustainable. Siddharth knew he needed a payments partner that could match his pace.

The Switch to PhonePe 

To close this gap between service and systems, Siddharth turned to PhonePe. The changeover was quick. “It was so easy onboarding with PhonePe. I just called them and their guy (representative from the merchant servicing team at PhonePe) was here,” Siddharth recalls. That first visit set the tone for a relationship that has now lasted seven years.

“For a business, you need a payments partner who is as speedy and as efficient as you. Your pace should match,” he says.

Today, Siddharth runs multiple businesses across the city without needing to be at each one. That is where the PhonePe Business app becomes central to his day. He can see every transaction, from every business, in one place, including how much each has collected, how many payments have gone through, and whether anything has failed.

On the shop floor, the PhonePe SmartSpeaker keeps the counter moving. It announces each incoming payment and the exact amount received, so staff and customers know instantly that the transaction is successful. There is less back and forth, fewer doubts, and faster queues.

When issues do arise, such as a failed payment, a settlement question, or a customer query, Siddharth does not have to navigate a call centre or multiple contacts. He has a single, familiar point of support. “Whenever I face an issue, I just call my PhonePe guy (representative from the merchant servicing team at PhonePe), and he is able to resolve it,” he says. For a business that runs on speed, that kind of direct support is as important as the technology itself.

For Siddharth, all of this adds up to one thing: reliability. “The best feature of PhonePe is that the payments are seamless. We have not faced any major problems. All the payments can be tracked on a single app, PhonePe Business.” With that confidence, he can focus less on chasing payments and more on serving the people who walk into Bhojanam every day.

Delhi is Always Ready!

Siddharth’s story reflects a city that has always adapted without losing its character. In Delhi, old and new do not compete. They coexist, and commerce is stronger for it. At Bhojanam, every meal is a small comfort. With payments running quietly in the background, Siddharth can focus entirely on the people who need it most.