India’s Razorpay buys Ezetap to tap into offline payments

By M. Sriram

MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s Razorpay mentioned on Thursday it had purchased offline funds agency Ezetap, marking the Sequoia Capital-backed agency’s newest wager on the funds trade in a deal which a supply with data of mentioned was price $150 million.

Razorpay, which is valued at greater than $7 billion and presents fee gateway providers for on-line retailers, mentioned in a press release that the acquisition was its greatest so far.

It mentioned the deal would enhance efforts to faucet the offline market which nonetheless accounts for a bulk of digital funds in India. Ezetap, whose merchandise embody point-of-sale machines, processes greater than $10 billion in annual transactions in India.

Razorpay co-founder Shashank Kumar mentioned Ezetap will assist it develop on this space. “There’s nonetheless a big portion of offline funds and in-person funds that we do not cowl,” he mentioned.

The supply mentioned Ezetap will proceed to function independently after its acquisition, including that the deal features a $150 million fee to Ezetap, with one other potential $50 million linked to its efficiency over the following yr.

The deal can even assist Razorpay cross-sell its providers, together with mortgage choices, to offline companies, Kumar mentioned in an interview, including that Razorpay at present serves greater than 8 million companies and processed funds price $80 billion since its inception about eight years in the past.

The acquisition comes as answer suppliers in India attempt to safe a good grip on each on-line and offline funds.

India’s Pine Labs, which for years focussed solely on offline funds, final yr began processing on-line transactions, a enterprise from which it’s concentrating on $4-5 billion in month-to-month transactions inside two years, Reuters reported.

(Reporting by M. Sriram; Modifying by Aditya Kalra and Alexander Smith)