Naspers-owned PayU doubles down on India with $70M deal to buy Wibmo
https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/12/payu-wibmo/
PayU, the Naspers-owned payments company that competes with the likes of PayPal but focuses mainly on emerging markets, has made an acquisition to expand its business in India. It has acquired Wibmo, a startup based out of the US (Cupertino, to exact) that mostly operates in India. PayU is paying $70 million for the startup, bringing the total its invested in building its business to $500 million in the last two months.
Wibmo offers a range of payment processing services that cover security, risk and fraud, authentication, SME disbursements, mobile payments, QR codes and prepaid cards. It works with banks, merchants and offers consumer-facing services, too. The appeal to PayU appears to be an opportunity to own touchpoints across the payment process, a bridge to develop its own ecosystem, although Wibmo will keep its branding and run as a wholly-owned subsidiary.