In one of the largest deals in the fintech space, PayU will be acquiring digital payments provider Billdesk for $4.7 billion, pending regulatory approval. The deal was announced by Prosus, which plans to combine its existing payments and fintech business PayU with BillDesk in the country.
According to Prosus, PayU will become one of the leading online payment providers globally and handle a total payment volume of $147 billion following the BillDesk acquisition. With this, Prosus has invested more than $10 billion in India. “PayU India and BillDesk run complementary businesses within India’s digital payment industry. Together, the two expect to create a financial ecosystem handling four billion transactions annually - four times PayU’s current level in India,” Prosus said in its statement.
At present, PayU operates three businesses — payments for domestic and cross border transactions, credit solutions for consumers and small businesses and investments in innovative fintech companies. In India, PayU has previously acquired CitrusPay, Paysense and Wibmo.
“Together, PayU India and BillDesk will be able to meet the changing payments needs of digital consumers, merchants and Government enterprises in India and offer state-of-the-art technology to even more of the excluded sections of society, while adhering to the regulatory environment in India and delivering robust consumer protection,” Prosus said in a statement.
Prosus Group CEO Bob van Dijk said, “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.”
“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,” he added.
Co-founder of BillDesk M N Srinivasu, said, “This investment by Prosus validates the significant opportunity in India for digital payments that is being propelled by innovation and the progressive regulatory framework put into place by the Reserve Bank of India, India’s central bank.
According to the FY21 annual report of the Reserve Bank of India, the number of transactions for digital retail payments has grown by more than 80% from 24 billion in 2018-19 to 44 billion to 2020-21.
Over the next three years, RBI expects more than 200 million new users to adopt digital payments with the average annual transactions per capita rising tenfold from 22 to 220.