Prosus, a subsidiary of SA based Naspers, announced that it is acquiring Indian based payments company, Billdesk for $4.7 billion. Prosus intends to merge BillDesk with its PayU fintech group.
This acquisition will make PayU a major global online payment provider handling four billion transactions annually and with about $147 billion in payment volume annually.
Founded in 2000 by a team of ex-Arthur Andersen professionals, M.N. Srinivasu, Ajay Kaushal and Karthik Ganapathy, BillDesk is an Indian success story in the digital payments business, operating one of the leading payment platforms in India.
From inception, Billdesk has raised a total of $241.4M in funding over 4 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Nov 16, 2018 from a Corporate Round round. Billdesk is funded by 7 investors including Visa, General Atlantic and Temasek Holdings as the most recent investors.
According to BillDesk founders,
“BillDesk’s mission has been to make payments simple, secure and convenient for everyone. Over the years, BillDesk has become the trusted choice for the largest global businesses, merchants, billers, banks and financial institutions and is ubiquitous to the financial ecosystem in India. We have had the privilege of stewarding stellar teams that have been instrumental in delivering many ‘firsts’ in the Indian marketplace. We are grateful for their dedication and commitment and to building BillDesk to a market-leading position.
Now, with Prosus and PayU, we are excited for this opportunity to deliver on this promise at a global scale. Consumers now rely on fintech services in so many ways: to pay their bills, to buy products and services, to send money, to invest and to take loans. Together, BillDesk and PayU can support the rapid growth of digital financial services and focus on innovating to enable our clients to serve their customers better in a rapidly changing world.”
Bob van Dijk, Group CEO of Prosus, said: “We have a long and deep relationship with India, having supported and partnered with some of its most dynamic entrepreneurs and new tech businesses since 2005. We’ve invested close to US$6 billion in Indian tech to date, and this deal will see that increase to more than US$10 billion.
“BillDesk exemplifies the ambition and expertise of Indian entrepreneurs, who are among the best in the world, with exceptional abilities to build products and services and understand scale and value. This is critical in a country as vast as India.
“Our announcement today reflects Prosus’s desire to build valuable, global consumer internet businesses that provide useful products and services for millions of people in their everyday lives. Along with classifieds, food delivery, and education technology, payments and fintech is a core segment for Prosus, and India remains our number one investment destination.”
Laurent Le Moal, CEO of PayU, said: “We believe this transaction will stimulate both innovation and competition within India’s digital payments industry. This will not only help to strengthen India’s digital economy, but also bring financial services to those who may have historically been excluded. This ambition is fully aligned with the Government of India’s vision of ‘Digital India’ and is a key objective for PayU across all the communities we serve globally.
“This deal is an example of how our purpose and our business objectives work together, accelerating growth and increasing access to financial services.”
Prosus is a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world. Operating and investing globally in markets with long-term growth potential, Prosus builds leading consumer internet companies that empower people and enrich communities.
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