Naspers-owned PayU today confirmed its acquisition of Indian payment gateway Citrus Pay. The deal was closed for US$130 million, making it one of the largest M&As in Indian fintech history – and one of the largest in the Indian internet world.
PayU is a payment service provider headquartered in the Netherlands. In India, it lets sites offer multiple payment options to customers, including debit, credit, and net banking. It also received a semi-closed wallet license last month from the Reserve Bank of India, which means users can link the wallet to their bank accounts and pay at sites that accept it. The PayU gateway also allows for multiple currencies.
Until this deal, Citrus Pay was veritably its competition – a small incumbent that threatened to shake up the financial giant’s plans in India.
With the new agreement, Amrish Rau, Citrus Pay’s current CEO, will head PayU in India. Its founder Jitendra Gupta will help manage Citrus Pay’s credit arm, LazyPay, and its other co-founder Shailaz Nag will help grow the business via bank alliances. PayU co-founder Nitin Gupta will leave the company.
Citrus Pay has raised US$32.5 million across three rounds. Sequoia Capital participated in all three rounds. Other investors include Ascent Capital and Beenos Asia.
The largest fintech M&A to happen yet in India is ecommerce site Snapdeal’s US$400 million acquisition of e-wallet Freecharge in April 2015.
See: $2.5b a year. 18m unique users. This fintech startup wants to be India’s payment universe
Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee
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