Shopclues to buy Mobile Payments start-up Momoe

Online shopping platform Shopclues.com is in advanced talks to buy mobile payments firm Momoe Technologies, as it looks to add a payment service to its platform. The all-stock deal, could value Bengaluru based Momoe at anywhere between $8 Million and $15 Million.

Shopclues was looking to invest close to $50 Million in either buying stakes or acquiring start-ups in the Hyperlocal, ad-tech and internet payments domains in order to accelerate expansion in India’s fast growing e-commerce market. Shopclues will use Momoe Technology to strengthen its payment network for merchants on its platform and will further integrate it with its hyperlocal commerce business.

During the past 12-18 months, large e-commerce firms have made investments, acquisitions and partnerships with payments companies to claim a share of the digital payments vertical, which helps reduce the dependency on cash and makes it convenient for online shopping. In February, Amazon announced acquisition of online payments firm Emvantage Payments Pvt. Ltd.

Snapdeal acquired mobile wallet firm FreeCharge in April 2015, and Flipkart bought payments services company FX Mart Pvt. Ltd in August 2015. Momoe was founded in 2014. The company primarily provides payment solutions for offline merchants. It allows customers to make digital payments using the Momoe app on their mobile phones. Momoe rose close to $1.2 Million from IDG Ventures India, Jungle Ventures and India Quotient. India’s e-commerce market is estimated to touch $100 Billion by April 2020.