Brazilian Payments Major Ebanx Partners With YES Bank For India Debut

Brazilian payments company Ebanx has partnered with YES Bank to facilitate cross-border merchant payments for customers in India, marking its entry into the Asian market.

The strategic move is part of the firm’s broader global expansion plans to developing countries and comes months after it began operations in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria in August last year.

Under the partnership with YES Bank, Ebanx will offer payments infrastructure to global brands who want to sell their products in India and allow Indian consumers to pay in local currency, using domestic payments methods such as Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and RuPay debit and credit cards, according to an ET report.

“We are starting with digital services, SaaS (software as a service) companies streaming all the global brands around those verticals. We are (also) bullish about education platforms looking to sell these services,” the publication quoted Paula Bellizia, president of global payments at Ebanx, as saying.

Note that Ebanx has not yet sought the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) nod for a payment aggregator cross-border (PA-CB) licence. However, it intends to do so in the near future in line with regulatory requirements.

Founded in 2012, Ebanx has raised $430 Mn in funding till date, with backing from a clutch of investors, including the likes of Advent International, FTV Capital, and Endeavor, as per data from Tracxn. 

It reached a valuation of $1 Bn in 2019 and had even set sights on an initial public offering in the US, but it later took a U-turn on its IPO plans amid market volatility.

Last year, the company expanded its operations to Africa and announced its intentions to enter the Indian market. 

Some media reports suggest Ebanx may still plan a public listing in the US, depending on how its business fares in India.

Global companies selling with Ebanx in Latin America and Africa include SHEIN, Uber, Airbnb, PlayStation, Shopee, Spotify and Hotmart among others. 

Recently, Ebanx also rolled out its payment stack to Indian consumers, in partnership with YES Bank. 

With this, Ebanx has joined the likes of global payments majors such as PayU, PayPal and Stripe that already cater to the Indian market along with a host of startups and financial services companies. 

Digital payments in India are booming at a massive rate, with the value of UPI transactions jumping 40% year-over-year to INR 19.64 Lakh Cr in April.