PayU To Explore Israel Fintech Market With Acquisition Of ZOOZ

In a step to expand its presence in high-growth geographical regions, PayU, the global fintech and e-payments division of Naspers, has acquired Israel-based payments technology company ZOOZ for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 2010 by Oren Levy and Ronen Morecki, ZOOZ provides an open payments platform designed to enable merchants to connect with multiple payment providers. It also helps them consolidate and harmonise their payments data, analyse it, and make smarter data-based decisions.

As part of the deal, ZOOZ’s co-founder and CEO Oren Levy and CTO Ronen Morecki will become part of PayU’s global leadership team and will focus on technology and business development.

ZOOZ’s 70-member team of experienced technical and payments experts will also become part of the PayU team with the aim of boosting the business’s technical capabilities.

Following completion of the deal, ZOOZ will be wholly owned by Naspers. The acquisition will enable Naspers to strengthen its payments division in support of its business strategy to expand its financial services to emerging markets that have a long-term growth potential.

With the ZOOZ acquisition, PayU’s total sum of investments and acquisitions in global fintech will rise to more than $350 Mn since it initiated on a series of strategic moves across the globe in 2016 to open up access to new financial markets for its merchants.

How Will PayU Leverage ZOOZ’s Tech Assets?

After the acquisition, the ZOOZ and PayU teams will work together to create a leading, global standard payments infrastructure of the future —  a comprehensive, modular, and highly flexible payment OS platform that can support evolving merchant and broader payment industry needs.

The payment OS platform is expected to feature fraud management and real-time reporting and smart routing, etc, to enable merchant growth globally.

Laurent le Moal, CEO of PayU, said, “PayU is one of the most active investors in the fintech space and we are always looking for opportunities to innovate and support our merchant clients to grow. By working together to create the first ‘Payment OS’ platform, we will advance PayU’s mission to help build a world without financial borders.”

The development of the Payment OS platform comes in the light of a recent partnership between the companies wherein PayU merchants such as Gett and Kiwi.com got access to 2.3 Bn new customers across high-growth markets via the ZOOZ-designed PayU Hub platform.

The platform will leverage PayU’s payments infrastructure and ZOOZ’s state-of-the-art technology to open up access to new markets for its merchants. The platform looks to create a new standard for payments across borders.

Oren Levy, co-founder and CEO of ZOOZ, said, “After a year-long, productive partnership, our shared vision to create a new global standard in payments infrastructure is becoming a reality with PayU’s acquisition of ZOOZ. The unique contribution we bring to PayU is an advanced technological layer which not only help merchants worldwide upscale their operations and provide a better customer experience but also offers analytics and optimisation capabilities that equip them with unprecedented insights.”

PayU: The Journey So Far

PayU provides online payment services in 16 high-growth markets, dedicated to creating a fast, simple, and efficient payment process for merchants and buyers. PayU has over 250 payment methods and PCI (Payment Card Industry)-certified platforms.

In India, PayU claims to cover nearly 60% of the airline business and 80% of the entire ecommerce business. PayU claims that records over INR 7,500 Cr worth digital payments per month in India on its platform.

One of its offerings is PayUBiz, which caters to clients such as Jet Airways, Amazon, Airtel, Snapdeal, Jabong, Ola, Bookmyshow, insurance companies, etc.

PayU India also has under its aegis PayUMoney, a secure payment solution that can be used by anyone who wants to collect payments in India. The company claims to cater to over 350K plus merchants all across India.

Earlier, in September 2016, it had acquired Indian fintech company Citrus Pay for $130 Mn.

After the merger, PayU has been focusing its energies on building its consumer vertical and launched its flagship product LazyPay, an online deferral payment option, in early 2017.

LazyPay is currently live on merchants such as PVR, Box8, Zomato, Jazz Cinemas, Netmeds, Innerchef, DVois, AbhiBus, Fassos, FreshMenu, and many more.

In May 2017, PayU had invested $119 Mn in Hamburg-based technology group for digital consumer credit, Kreditech. Recently, it invested $18 Mn in Mumbai-based fintech company PaySense.

With the international digital payments market expected to reach $994 Bn in 2020, nearly two-thirds of cross-border business will come from high-growth markets like Asia and Latin America, according to a report by Accenture.

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