Buoyed by a mandate from the insurance giant LIC for premium collection, Hero Group firm Easy Bill today said it is planning to increase its network to 10,000 outlets spanning 100 cities by the year-end.

Easy Bill is a chain of one-stop payment collection centres, offering a variety of services like bill collection, pre-paid mobile recharge, railway tickets booking and other Internet-enabled payment services.

"We are on a rapid expansion mode. Our target is to have 10,000 outlets across the country in 100 cities by the end of the year," Easy Bill Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Rahul Munjal told PTI.

The firm currently has presence in 50 cities with around 6,000 outlets. The company will also hire 100 people this year to keep in sync with its expansion plans.

"Also in terms of manpower, we will increase to 300 by the end of the year from the current 200," Munjal said.

Easy Bill's expansion programme coincides with the recent mandate from LIC to collect its premium from its nearly 250 million customers.

"Last month we had tied up with LIC, that will allow us to collect its premium at our outlets. Considering the size of LIC's customer base, we hope to get good business from this," Munjal added.

On areas, where the company is focusing to enhance its operations, he said, "Today we have 80 per cent of insurance companies (as partners); we are chasing the rest 20 per cent.

We have 30 per cent of credit cards providers and now chasing the rest 70 per cent."

Asked about investments, he said the company had invested up to USD 3 million in upgrading back-end infrastructure, including IT systems.

On revenue growth, Munjal said: "The target is to grow around 40-45 per cent this year." He, however, did not disclose the exact revenue saying "the company is a privately-held firm".