Facebook co-founder’s B Capital makes first investment in India, leads $10 M funding in MSwipe

On Thursday, PoS merchant acquirer, Mswipe announced the closing of a Series-D round of above US$40 million. This is a part of the $31 million round which the company announced in June this year.

The recent round of funding is led by Facebook Co-founder, Eduardo Saverin’s investment fund B Capital along with existing investors, DCG Consumer Partners. As a part of the investment, Eduardo Saverin will join Mswipe’s Board and work closely with the company as it enters its next phase of growth.

The other investors who participated in the Series-D funding include UC-RNT Fund, Matrix Partners India, and Falcon Edge Capital.

According to a statement made by the company, the capital raised will support Mswipe’s continuous effort in expanding its acceptance network at retail merchants for card and digital payments and strengthen its product development capability.

Mswipe caters to a market estimated at 14 million merchants with low POS penetration.

Started in 2011, the company claims to have a network of 280,000 terminals spread over 650 cities and towns.

The platform offers merchants an easy and efficient way to accept digital payments like UPI, Google Tez, PhonePe, BharatQR, and BHIM in addition to card payments over mobile phones, tablets or PCs.

Speaking on the latest development, Manish Patel, Founder and CEO, Mswipe said,

“At Mswipe, we are at the forefront of the payments revolution by powering acceptance infrastructure at the merchants’ end, enabling them to accept card and digital payments in a hassle-free manner. It is a great validation to have an investor like B Capital along with our existing investors. B Capital’s expertise in the sector and its exceptional network in Asia will be an important ingredient as we shift orbit and execute our next phase of growth.”

Kabir Narang, Partner at B Capital, said,

“We have been actively looking at investment opportunities in leading technology companies in Asia. We are excited to partner with Mswipe, an end-to-end payment solution that is made for India. Our philosophy at B Capital is to back exceptional founders and teams like the one at Mswipe and market leaders where we can leverage our global network to help accelerate their growth.”

“While the US has been the traditional anchor for innovative technology, we are seeing disruptive innovation emerging from geographies like India, China, South East Asia, and Israel. This is one of the reasons at B Capital we started with a global investment model and a presence in Asia and the US from day one,” he added.

Deepak I Shahdadpuri, MD, DSG Consumer Partners and Chairman, Mswipe, said,

“On behalf of all the investors, I would like to welcome B Capital to Mswipe and Eduardo Saverin to the board. B Capital compliments the existing investor base and will add significant strategic value as Mswipe starts its next phase of growth to build India’s leading payments and lending business.”

Last July, the firm closed Series C funding of $25 million, getting new investors including Falcon Edge Capital, Ola Cabs, and Meru Capital. 

Just yesterday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) slashed charges for debit card transactions in the country.

As part of its fifth monetary policy statement, the RBI set a cap for the maximum permissible transaction rate (or Merchant Discount Rate) for both, ‘card present’ and ‘card not present’ transactions, such as QR-based payments. [Read more here]

As of September 2017, the total number of Point of Sale devices stood at 2.9 million. In August, MSwipe’s arch-rivalEzetap had announced that it had received $16 million in funding.