MPoS Startup, Mswipe Raises $25 Mn From Falcon Edge Capital, Meru Capital & Ola

Mumbai-based mPoS (mobile point-of-sale) solution provider, Mswipe Technologies has 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. The round also saw the participation from its existing investors Matrix Partners India, Axis Bank and DSG Consumer Partners.

The startup plans to deploy the funds to further accelerate its aggressive growth and customer success.

Founded in 2011 by Manish Patel, Mswipe is a wireless payment system which provides mobile payment service to SMEs and enterprise clients. It also allows merchants to undertake plastic card payments through smartphones or ordinary feature phones.

The solution is already in use with more than 25,000 merchants across India including clients like McDonald’s, Asian Paints and Reliance Life.

With an aim to provide mobile PoS solutions to 1 million merchants across 400 Indian cities and towns Manish Patel, Founder and Managing Director, Mswipe said, “India currently has 12-15 million SMEs and mobile PoS is the only channel which can efficiently link these SMEs to mainstream financial services. Today less than 500,000 SMEs have any type of PoS. We invite all stakeholders in the financial services and technology ecosystem to partner with us to offer best in class financial services to small merchants to create India’s largest financial services platform for SMEs.”

For Ola the investment makes strategic sense, given Mswipe’s business model. Payments have been a critical area for ride-sharing apps due to constant integration of multiple payment options. Earlier in the month, another ride sharing app, Uber tied up payment gateway firm Zaakpay and restarted its credit card payments in India.

Experts believe that mPoS market has seen a significant growth and players in this segment will soon be adding 10,000-15,000 merchants per month.

Mswipe faces competition from other similar service providers such as Mosambee, MobiSwipe, Ezetap Mobile Solutions and Mahindra Comviva’s payPLUS. However, Mswipe differentiates itself by focussing on acquiring merchants, rather than being seen as a device manufacturer.

Prior to this Mswipe had raised undisclosed amount of funding led by Matrix Partners, Axis Bank and DSG Consumer Partners.

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