Razorpay acquires PoS provider Ezetap
This is significant for the fintech unicorn as it plans a foray into offline payments which is currently dominated by Pine Labs, MSwipe, Infibeam Avenues, PhonePe and BharatPe.
Payments gateway firm has bought a majority stake in Bengaluru-based Ezetap Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a provider of mobile point-of-sale devices.
As per regulatory filings sourced by Entrackr, the company bought an 80% stake in Ezetap Solutions Pte Ltd, the Singapore-based parent entity of Ezetap Solutions Pvt Ltd, for $100-$120 million.
Further, Helion Ventures, an early investor in Ezetap, still has a minority stake in the company following the acquisition.
Ezetap and Razorpay are yet to comment on queries sent by YourStory.
This is significant for Razorpay as it allows the fintech unicorn to get into offline payments which is currently dominated by , , , and .
Incorporated in 2011 by Abhijit and Bhaktha, Bangalore-based Ezetap entered the fintech space by processing card payments on mobile phones, also known as mobile Point-Of-Sale (mPOS), for large enterprises and businesses.
In 2018, Byas Nambisan, the then Chief Financial Officer (CFO), took over the company’s affairs after the then co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abhijit Bose aka Bobby exited the startup to join WhatsApp.
Following their respective exits, both the co-founders continue to serve as non-executive members of Ezetap’s board.
Ezetap biggest competitor in the offline space is Pine Labs, who is currently the biggest player. Others include Mswipe, Innoviti, and Mosambee. Since inception, it has raised about $50 million (last round in August 2017) from investors including Helion Venture Partners, Js Investments and Social Capital.
Ezetap’s Singapore-based entity, which runs the India entity, reported revenue of $8.9 million for the year ended March 2020, according to data platform Tracxn.
The company reported a loss of $8.3 million for that year and is yet to file results for FY21 and FY22 (2021-22) yet.
Razorpay's shopping spree
The fintech unicorn has been on a major buying spree, of late. This includes its foray into international markets. It has acquired payments technology solutions provider Technologies in March 2022.
Prior to this, it took over Malaysia-based fintech firm ; AI-based risk tech SaaS Platform Tera Finlabs in 2021, Payroll and HR management solution startup in 2019, and Thirdwatch, a Fraud Analytics AI-platform, in 2018.
Major players in the payment space like Pine Labs and Razorpay, have been looking to offer both online and offline payment solutions. Pine Labs, which offers PoS machine for physical payments, marked its entry in online space with the launch of its gateway Plural in November 2021.
Even new entrants like MSwipe (operating in the offline payments) recently announced to get into the online payments segment after receiving in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India for the payment aggregator licence. The company is developing its own in-house online payment gateway.
Contactless payments from cards or near-field communication enabled devices have seen a massive uptick since the onset of the pandemic.
In March, Infibeam Avenues bought the contactless payments-focused Uvik Technologies for Rs 75 crore in a cash and stock deal. Uvik has developed a technology that converts any smartphone into a payment device.
Edited by Akanksha Sarma
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