It’s Official: PayU Acquires Online Payments Processor Wibmo For $70 Mn

Naspers-owned fintech company PayU has acquired Bengaluru and Cupertino-based Wibmo that specialises in processing online payments in a deal worth $70 Mn.

Post-acquisition, Wibmo will enable PayU to build a robust digital payment ecosystem capable of harmonizing transaction processing on both issuing and acquiring side, to deliver a seamless payment experience and industry-leading success rates in online and mobile payments.

Further, PayU and Wibmo together will be able to work with merchants and financial institutions to offer targeted payment solutions leveraging data from hundreds of millions of Indian consumers annually.

Aakash Moondhra, CFO, PayU Global said, “Through the acquisition of Wibmo, our endeavour is to positively impact and add value to the entire ecosystem including banks, consumers and merchants, with the combined service offerings of PayU and Wibmo.”

Why Is Wibmo Attractive To PayU?

Led by Govind Setlur, 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 Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and can therefore, process all forms of digital payments from cards to mobile based transactions.

Govind Setlur, founder and CEO, Wibmo said, “PayU has evolved within the complex payments landscape to become India’s biggest online payments processor, serving more than 350,000 merchants. We are excited to embark on this next chapter of Wibmo’s growth with PayU.”

Future Of PayU + Wibmo

With the acquisition, PayU is looking to accelerate its credit business by leveraging big data to power credit on various online and offline merchants.

Emphasising on the company’s different capabilities and positioning in the value chain, Wibmo and PayU businesses will continue to run separately. However, both teams will work together to extract synergies and build unique business solutions from the two technology platforms.

Wibmo’s management team of seasoned technology and payments experts will also become part of the PayU team, adding value to the combined business.

Further, Govind Setlur, founder and CEO of Wibmo, will become part of PayU’s leadership team, reporting into the PayU India CEO. Also, Wibmo will continue to operate and serve all of its clients as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Naspers’ PayU under the leadership of Govind.

PayU India: Expanding Growth

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.

Inc42 had earlier reported that PayU is doubling down on emerging fintech markets, and India is possibly the biggest geography for them. PayU has earmarked more than $1 Bn to deployed in India, as it bulks up its portfolio here inorganically.

Naspers-owned PayU India gathered a revenue of $84.8 Mn (INR 588 Cr) for the period ending March 2018, from $44.35 Mn (INR 311 Cr) the year before, a jump of 92%, according to the company’s filings accessed by Inc42.

With Wibmo, PayU is looking to upon its presence in other high growth markets to drive the expansion of Wibmo’s payment security and mobile payment business outside India.

A report by Credit Suisse predicted India’s digital payments industry to grow five-fold from its present $200 Bn to $1 Tn by 2023. It also suggested that the value of digital payments will likely jump from the current 10% to over 25% by 2023.

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