Nasper’s PayU Invests $7 Mn Into Its Consumer Lending Entity LazyPay

Nasper-owned Digital payments company, PayU has invested INR 50 Cr (about $7 Mn) in its lending business PayU Finance, which goes by the brand name LazyPay.

According to the MCA filings accessed by Inc42, PayU payments will now acquire 8 Lakh shares in its lending arm for a premium of INR 52 per share. Earlier in January, PayU has separated its lending business as a separate entity, with an aim to become a full-service financial player around credit business in the country.

LazyPay was the consumer brand of Indian fintech company Citrus Pay, which Naspers acquired in September 2016 for $130 Mn (INR 919.9 Cr).

PayU India has recorded a revenue of $84.8 Mn (INR 588 Cr) for the period ending March 2018, from $44.35 Mn (INR 311 Cr) in the last year, which is a hike of 92%. During the period, LazyPay had gained significant traction reaching over 450K consumers and issuing more than $4 Mn (INR 28.3 Cr) in loans per month. 

“Our credit products have seen some fantastic uptake among the consumers with a customer base of over one million and credit disbursals worth over INR 200 Cr ($28 Mn). We have ambitions to become a full-service financial player and are building a dedicated business around credit,” the company had said earlier this year.

Also recently, LazyPay’s director Jitendra Gupta has left the company to join BharatPe’s board of directors.

Overall, digital lending has been pegged as one of the fastest growing segments in the India’s fintech space. A BCG report has predicted the digital lending industry to touch $1 Tn mark in the next five years. 

According to DataLabs by Inc42, payments tech startups accounted for 55.5% of the total fintech investments between 2014 and 2018. The top three fintech sub-sectors — payments tech, insurance tech and lending tech — combined makeup 85.7% of the total $6.97 Bn funding in Indian fintech startups in the same period.

Other players in the consumer lending space include PerkFinance, ShubhLoans, Propelld, Paytm, ETMONEY, and more. Amidst the crowded digital lending sector, PayU directly competes with startups such as Sachin Bansal-backed Kissht, Simpl, and ePayLater.  

Earlier this month, Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal has invested INR 50 Cr (about $7 Mn) in the consumer lending startup Kissht.

[This development was first highlighted by a business intelligence platform, Tofler]