PayU to acquire Wibmo

Naspers owned Fintech Company PayU is looking to dominate the entire payments processes as it is in talks to acquire Bengaluru and Cupertino based Wibmo that specializes in processing online payments. The deal is reportedly expected to be $50 - $60 Million.

Wibmo offers its digital payment technology solutions and payment security in multiple countries including India. The company also offers 3D secure process of digital payments, which is the page where customers are asked to punch in their passwords or one-time passwords (OTPs) to authenticate digital transactions.

The company is certified by Mastercard, Visa, RuPay as well as PCI DSS and can therefore, process all forms of digital payments from cards to mobile based transactions.  PayU is doubling down on emerging fintech markets, and India is possibly the biggest geography for them. The company will be reportedly committing substantial capital for investments and acquisitions, particularly to build its credit and SMB lending businesses.

PayU has earmarked more than $1 Bn to deploy in India, as it bulks up its portfolio here inorganically. PayU India has emerged as one of the largest players in the online payments space after acquiring Citrus Payments in 2016. Since then, PayU has invested in digital lending startups like Zest Money, PaySense and Remitly.

Mswipe acquires PayU offline POS Business

PoS (Point of Sale) solutions provider Mswipe has entered into a strategic partnership with online payment service provider PayU India. Mswipe has taken over the offline merchant acquiring business of PayU India.

Mswipe will merge PayU existing offline PoS division team into its existing operations and workforce expanding its network to 220K terminals across 550+ cities. On the other hand, merchants associated with Mswipe will now be able to avail Internet payments services offered by PayU India. PayU offline merchant acquisition team had acquired over 9,000 offline merchants in the country. All of PayU offline merchants along with its PoS business will also get transferred to Mswipe.

Mswipe is a PoS service provider for a large merchant base. It also allows merchants to undertake plastic card payments through smartphones or ordinary feature phones. Headquartered in Mumbai, the company claims to have a team of 2000. In July 2015, the startup secured $25 Mn (about INR160 Cr) in its Series C round of funding from New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital, investment firm Meru Capital and ride hailing app, Ola, and existing investors.

PayU India is the flagship company of Naspers Group. It was established in 2011 and has over 250 payment methods and PCI (Payment Card Industry)-certified platforms. It claims to have more than 1,800 payment specialists based in local markets supporting PayU 200,000+ merchants and consumers making online payments. In September 2016, it acquired rival online payment gateway CitrusPay for $130 Mn, making it by far the biggest M&A cash deal in Indian fintech. Earlier this month, Kreditech secured $119 Mn (Euro 110 Mn) from PayU.

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. 

Flipkart acquires FX Mart

India’s largest e-commerce firm Flipkart has bought payment services start-up FX Mart Pvt. Ltd, which holds a prepaid wallet license, so as to add a payment service on its platform and on that of its unit Myntra. Singapore registered Flipkart Payments Pvt. Ltd, paid Rs. 45.4 crore for a majority stake in FX Mart and two senior Flipkart executives also joined the board of FX Mart.

FX Mart owns a coveted prepaid license issued by Reserve Bank of India. The license will allow Flipkart to offer a digital wallet on its app and avoid paying a cut to external wallet providers. The license can also potentially help Flipkart increase the proportion of cashless transactions. A majority of shoppers still prefer paying cash for online purchases, which creates operational headaches for e-commerce companies.

With FX Mart License, Flipkart which has been a laggard in payments plans to launch a payment service on its app as well as Myntra within the next three months. The company also plans to offer the payment service on third party sites and apps later. The current market leader is Paytm followed by a host of smaller firms such as Oxigen Services India Pvt. Ltd and One MobiKwik Systems Pvt. Ltd.

India has several others payment services start-ups including Citrus Payments Solutions Pvt. Ltd, PayU Payments Pvt. Ltd, CCAvenue and Zaakpay. FX Mart offers electronic payments, foreign exchange and travel services. FX Mart is Flipkart second acquisition in digital payments. It bought another payments start-up NGPay last year.