PayU to buy Citrus Pay

Digital Payment provider PayU, which is owned by South Africa’s Naspers Group will buy rival Citrus Pay for $130 Million, the fifth largest deal ever in the Indian Start-up business and an indicator of the booming financial technology sector.

After the acquisition, PayU India will have more than 30 Million customers. The company forecast it will process an estimated 150 Million transactions worth $4.2 Billion in 2016. The deal is expected to give an attractive exit to Citrus Pay investors, Ascent Capital and Beenos and Sequoia Capital. It also represents the latest expansion push by Naspers, which owns the Ibibo Group in India.

Naspers is now involved in two of the five biggest deals in Indian start-ups. It also bought online bus ticketing platform RedBus in 2013 for an estimated $135 Million and owns a large minority stake in Flipkart. Rising mobile Internet usage and a regulatory push toward converting cash payments into digital are expected to drive a rapid expansion of online payments.

Citrus Payments acquires Zwitch

Citrus Payments Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which operates an online checkout and payment solution Citrus Pay, has acquired Bengaluru based payment platform Zwitch, run by iZwipe Payment Technologies. Citrus Pay is a fintech company focused on providing simplified payment experience to consumers.

Citrus partners with the airlines, utilities, marketplaces and 6000 other merchants to provide consumer payments and mobile banking services. After raising a Series A round of $2 Million in 2012 from Sequoia, the company grew to grab a $5.5 million Series B round from investors. Two days ago, it raised its Series C round of $25 Million led by Sequoia Capital and Ascent Capital.

The business has taken a stride forward and the recent investor backing pushed the envelope for Citrus Pay consumer business. With more than 15 Million users already using Citrus to transact online, Citrus ventured into the consumer payments space with the Citrus Cube app a personal bill management app that claims to see over 10 Million Transactions in a month.

Zwitch, a full stack payment platform enabling developers accept online and mobile payments, was founded in 2013. It claims to have over 1,000 merchants onboard and records daily transactions of about Rs 10 Lakh. This is the first acquisition by Citrus. Citrus competes with CCAvenue, ibibo group PayU, One97 Paytm Payments, ZaakPay and PayPal.