PayU’s $4.7bn deal to help digital payment industry grow
BillDesk, an Indian success story and one of the leading payment businesses in the country founded in 2000, is being acquired for US$4.7 billion by PayU of the Netherlands-incorporated Prosus NV, making it one of the biggest deal in the Indian Fintech and consumer internet space.
The PayU-BillDesk combination will create a leading digital payments company in India and globally, and it is exceptionally well-positioned to expand deeper into the Indian fintech ecosystem as more and more Indian customers move from cash to digital transactions,” Prosus Group CEO Bob van Dijk told reporters during a briefing on 31 Aug 2021.
The transaction, subject to formality of approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI), is expected to close by early 2022,
Prosus’ latest acquisition will take its total investment in India to more than US$10 billion. It has invested close to US$6 billion since 2005 in Indian tech companies such as Byju’s, Meesho, Swiggy, Urban Company and others while PayU investments includes CitrusPay, Paysense and Wimbo.
BillDesk is backed by global investors such as General Atlantic, Visa, TA Associates, Clearstone Venture and Temasek.
Dijk said, “That underlines our commitment in India, a market that has been the core focus of our investment over the past decade. I believe it will be a very significant driver of our growth over the next decade as well.”
“By bringing together these two complementary businesses, we expect to create a fintech ecosystem handling 4 billion transactions annually,” PayU India CEO Anirban Mukherjee said.
The PayU and BillDesk combination will help grow India’s digital payments industry, propel the Digital India vision. It will also allow PayU to service the key audiences of consumers, merchants and banks and utilise that scale, both in India and internationally and innovate further.
“This investment by Prosus validates the significant opportunity in India for digital payments that is being propelled by innovation and the progressive regulatory framework put into place by the Reserve Bank of India,” added M N Srinivasu, co-founder of BillDesk. #investment #banking #technology #acquisition /fiinews.com
