PayU, an online payment service provider and Naspers’ fintech arm, today announced the acquisition of Wibmo, a Cupertino, CA-based industry leader in digital payment security and mobile payment technologies. This strategic acquisition combines PayU’s strong merchant network and Wibmo’s leadership in digital transaction security solutions to offer industry-leading payments solutions to merchants and financial institutions in India and other high growth markets.

Wibmo, an innovative digital payment company partners and deeply integrates with banks in over twenty countries to offer payment authentication and risk-based decisioning across billions of online and mobile payment transactions. The acquisition of Wibmo will enable PayU to build a robust digital payment ecosystem capable of harmonizing transaction processing on both issuing and acquiring side, to deliver a seamless payment experience and industry-leading success rates in online and mobile payments. Additionally, PayU and Wibmo together will be able to work with merchants and financial institutions to offer targeted payment solutions leveraging data from hundreds of millions of Indian consumers annually. This acquisition will also help PayU accelerate its credit business by leveraging big data to power credit on various online and offline merchants in partnership with leading lending players.

Wibmo has also built and operates a robust platform for banks to power mobile payments solutions. PayU and Wibmo will leverage this platform to partner with leading banks and be a catalyst in creating a full suite mobile commerce and payment ecosystem in multiple countries.

Aakash Moondhra, CFO, PayU Global said, “India is a priority market for PayU and we are committed to making digital payments frictionless through our innovative products and services, supporting the Government’s vision of a digital India. PayU’s technologically future-ready products are defining and reinventing India’s payments landscape, supporting the country’s transition to a cashless, digital economy. Through the acquisition of Wibmo, our endeavour is to positively impact and add value to the entire ecosystem including banks, consumers and merchants, with the combined service offerings of PayU and Wibmo. We will partner with leading banks to enable digital banking, merchants will gain with higher conversions rates and increased sales, and consumers will have a frictionless experience in completing digital payments transactions.”

Govind Setlur, founder and CEO, Wibmo added, “PayU has evolved within the complex payments landscape to become India’s biggest online payments processor, serving more than 350,000 merchants. We are excited to embark on this next chapter of Wibmo’s growth with PayU. By combining our track record and expertise in payment security and mobile payments with PayU’s strong merchant network and heritage in payments, the combined entity will be focussed on delivering more secure and seamless payments experience to its customers.” 

The deal brings together two highly complementary businesses and enables them to offer innovative financial services and new capabilities to the merchants and financial institutions, thereby helping them grow and scale. Given different capabilities and positioning in the value chain, Wibmo and PayU businesses will continue to run separately. However, both teams will work together to extract synergies and build unique business solutions from the two technology platforms. Govind Setlur, founder and CEO of Wibmo, a strong technology leader with 30 years of management experience in Silicon Valley and India, will become part of PayU’s leadership team, reporting into the PayU India CEO. 

Wibmo will continue to operate and serve all of its clients as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Naspers’ PayU under the leadership of Govind. Wibmo’s strong management team of seasoned technology and payments experts will also become part of the PayU team, adding value to the combined business. 

As well as helping Wibmo scale its business in India, PayU will draw upon its presence in other high growth markets to drive the expansion of Wibmo’s payment security and mobile payment business outside India. The investment takes PayU’s fintech investment total past the $500 million mark, putting the company within the top five leading global fintech investors over the last two years.