BharatPe Declares the Acquisition of Payback India
India’s largest offline payments firm for retailer and businesses, BharatPe has announced the acquisition of the multi-brand loyalty platform Payback India.
The firm has procured Payback India from American Express and ICICI Investments Strategic Fund, which possesses 90 percent and 10 percent stake, respectively, the company said in a statement. Furthermore, Bharat Pe hasn’t disclosed the financial details. But a person privy to the development has spilt the bean on that the deal size is expected to be around $30 million.
BharatPe started in 2018 as a merchant-focused QR-code based payments platform and then ventured into lending to merchants. The period since its inception has seen cashless transactions grow exponentially in India. It competes with Alibaba-backed Paytm, Walmart-owned PhonePe, and Google Pay, among others.
However, Payback India would continue to operate individually and all its staffs would turn as part of the BharatPe group, according to the company’s statement. Suhail Sameer and Gautam Kaushik, group presidents at BharatPe, along with General Counsel Sumeet Singh, have merged the board of Payback India.
Established in 2010, Payback India has obtained about 100 million users who earn and redeem points on payments made to partner merchants. Post the deal, Payback's loyalty programme will be expanded to BharatPe's six million offline merchants as well.
In a statement, Ashneer Grover, co-founder of BharatPe says, “With the acquisition of Payback India, we will be able to add a whole new dimension to our merchant value proposition. In addition to the range of payment and credit products which BharatPe offers to help merchants scale their business, we will also be able to drive more consumers to their stores."
