Friendster owner MOL makes majority-stake investment in cash-based payment platform Rixty

MOL AccessPortal, the e-payment subsidiary of Malaysia’s MOL Global, which bought Friendster in 2009, has made a majority-stake investment in Rixty, a San Francisco based startup that lets consumers buy digital goods without a credit card.

The financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Nonetheless, the founding team and existing investors will remain on board as significant shareholders, according to TechCrunch.

Both companies offer up similar services, giving users a way to pay for gaming and digital content. Rixty has 75,000 payment points in the United States, 66,000 in Brazil, and a total of 500,000 worldwide. It has partnered up with 70 game publishers to integrate its payment service.

MOL, meanwhile, has 360,000 physical payment channels in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Australia, and New Zealand. Its payment services is used by around 200 game publishers, through Friendster for example.

It currently handles 60 billion transactions yearly and is on track to process USD500M in payments this year.

The investment expands MOL’s presence into the US and Brazil. This benefits game publishers who want to reach a global audience.