South African conglomerate Naspers-owned payments company PayU has acquired Bengaluru and California-based Wibmo for $70 million (Rs 484 crore), it announced on Friday.
The acquisition will bring together PayU’s strong merchant network and Wibmo’s digital transaction security solutions expertise for merchants and financial institutions in India and other high growth markets, PayU said in a press statement.
Accel Partners-backed Wibmo, a digital payment security and mobile payment technologies firm, will continue to operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of PayU, the statement added.
According to a TechCrunch report, the deal will also help PayU scale up its business in India since Wibmo mostly operates in India. Wibmo specialises in multiple payment service offerings, including 3D secure for ensuring the safety of digital transactions. It works with many large Indian banks.
“We will partner with leading banks to enable digital banking, merchants will gain with higher conversions rates and increased sales, and consumers will have a frictionless experience in completing digital payments transactions,” Aakash Moondhra, CFO, PayU Global, said.
The acquisition will also help PayU accelerate its credit business by leveraging big data to provide credit to various online and offline merchants in partnership with lenders.
“By combining our track record and expertise in payment security and mobile payments with PayU’s strong merchant network and heritage in payments, the combined entity will be focussed on delivering more secure and seamless payments experience to its customers,” Govind Setlur, founder and CEO, Wibmo said.
Wibmo was founded in 1999 by Setlur and Veena Mistry. Setlur will become part of PayU’s leadership team, and will report to PayU India chief executive Anirban Mukherjee.
With this transaction, PayU claims that its fintech investments have crossed the $500-million mark.
Avendus was the exclusive strategic and financial advisor to Wibmo on the transaction.
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