SVL enters bill payment market, wants to Evolve to the top
Published:Wednesday | April 30, 2025 | 12:05 AMNeville Graham - Business Reporter
Armed with the approval of the central bank, entertainment company Supreme Ventures Limited has entered the bill payment market through its fintech arm, Supreme Ventures Fintech Limited.
The service will be provided under its Evolve brand.
The company has entered the arena with the intent of building out a payment chain that outpaces rival operations in number of locations, utilising SVL Group’s retail network through which its lottery games and other products are sold, according to SVL Chief Innovation Officer Delroy Anderson.
“We have 168 shops that persons can go and pay their bills as of today, and that number is growing by the day as we set up across the country,” Anderson said.
“Our mission is to have at least 304 shops with bill payment services,” he told the Financial Gleaner.
Evolve Bill Pay will be going up against big operations such as Bill Express, owned by the GraceKennedy conglomerate, and Paymaster Jamaica, which is owned by Digicel.
Bill Express operates through a network of physical locations and online platforms, numbering around 300, while Paymaster says it has 150 payment windows.
Competitors are known to share services at some locations, according to Lasco Financial Services CEO Jacinth Hall Tracey, whose company also offers bill payment services among other money services. Banks also facilitate bill payment through online systems.
Anderson said Evolve has bill collection agreements with four of the country’s biggest service providers, namely, electricity utility Jamaica Public Service, National Water Commission, and telecoms Digicel Jamaica and Flow Jamaica.
“We’ve had Flow for some time now. The others were a bit more challenging to get on, but we finally have them now,” he said.
The expansion into bill payment reflects SVL Group’s continued efforts to diversity its revenue stream in order to be less reliant on game revenue and further marks its continuing transition from being just a lottery company to a business that’s capable of handling billions of transactions every day.
Key to this effort is the distribution network built out by SVL Group over time to ensure deep penetration of the lottery system.
“Because we have the retail presence deep in every community, the goal is to bring services closer to the people – for example, that elderly lady, who would otherwise have to take a taxi to the town centre miles away to do her bill payment transaction or collect her remittance,” Anderson said.
Evolve will charge a $50 fee for bill payment, said Anderson, who adds that Supreme Ventures Fintech’s platform has a direct link with service providers.
“For example, if you pay your JPS bill … at our location, within minutes they’re seeing that payment and it’s reflected on your account,” he said.
Supreme Ventures has invested US$800,000, or about $125 million, to date in upgrades to the fintech platform, with the intent of rolling out other services.
“… The ambition is that because of our distribution network and our retail network, we believe that we can play a great role in bringing services to communities,” Anderson said.
That ambition includes the development and eventual deployment of a mobile wallet, and Supreme Ventures Fintech has applied to be a part of the Bank of Jamaica of sandbox, which facilitates development of such products.
“We believe that the underserved and unserved communities across the country, we can play a part in getting more people in the formal financial sector by providing services to them,” Anderson said.
“We’re lending to people that the banks sometimes neglect or would not do business with,” he said, referencing SVL Group’s microlending subsidiary McKayla Financial Services.
“Yes, interest rates may be a bit higher because of the risk that we take, but we are providing services that other entities aren’t providing to these people, and the aim is to wrap all of that up into one (digital wallet),” the chief innovation officer said.