PayU Eyes Dominance In Payments Sector With Plans To Acquire Wibmo

Naspers-owned fintech company PayU is looking to dominate the entire payments process as it is in talks to acquire Bengaluru and Cupertino-based Wibmo that specialises in processing online payments.

The deal is reportedly expected to be at $50 Mn-$60 Mn. 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 PCI DSS and can therefore, process all forms of digital payments from cards to mobile based transactions.

Inc42 had earlier reported that 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 deployed in India, as it bulks up its portfolio here inorganically. A PayU India spokesperson reportedly said, “It is the company’s policy to neither acknowledge nor deny its involvement in any merger, acquisition or divestiture activity nor to comment on market rumours.”

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.

Nasper-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.

During the said period, its pay-later product LazyPay had also gained significant traction reaching over 450K consumers and issuing more than $4 Mn (INR 28.3 Cr) in loans per month.

According to Inc42‘s Indian Tech Startup Funding Report, 2018, fintech startups secured $1.4 Bn across 121 deals, making it the top funded sector of 2018.

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.

[The development was reported by ET.]