Mswipe Acquires PayU India’s Offline Business To Expand Digital Payments

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

Mswipe will merge PayU’s 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.

As per an official statement, PayU’s offline merchant acquisition team had acquired over 9,000 offline merchants in the country. All of PayU’s offline merchants along with its PoS business will also get transferred to Mswipe.

Commenting on the partnership, Manish Patel, founder and CEO, Mswipe said, “PoS terminals are the preferred medium of payments by customers to transact digitally at merchant locations. The partnership with PayU is mutually beneficial to both companies as it helps each consolidate its leadership positions in their areas of focus.”

Launched in 2011 by Manish Patel, 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. Prior to that, it had raised undisclosed amount of funding led by Matrix Partners, Axis Bank, and DSG Consumer Partners.

Amrish Rau, CEO, PayU India said, “We are laser focussed on the online space and continue to increase our market share through new fintech products and innovation. This partnership allows us to focus on our core of enabling digital payments across more brands and merchants across the country.”

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’s 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.

Over the past few years, the payments landscape in India has shown some major shifts with digital payments witnessing an exponential growth. The digital payments industry in India is projected to reach $500 Bn by 2020, as a per a recent report by Google and Boston Consulting Group.

In May 2016, Gurgaon-based mobile wallet company, MobiKwik raised an undisclosed amount of funding led by Japan’s GMO Payment Gateway and MediaTek. In August 2016, South Africa-based Net1 UEPS Technologies Inc. invested $40 Mn for a subscription agreement with MobiKwik in order to mark its foray in India. UAE-based payments solutions provider OMA Emirates has acquired fintech startup MobiSwipe Technologies Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed amount.

Other players in the segment include Ezetap, Mosambee, Paynear among others.