Naspers-owned PayU acquires digital payment security startup Wibmo

South-African internet and media giant Naspers-owned fintech company PayU has acquired Silicon Valley-based digital payment security startup Wibmo. The deal, valued around USD 70 million, was announced by PayU earlier this week.

Wibmo will continue to operate as usual and serve as a wholly owned subsidiary of PayU. Under the new arrangement, Govind Setlur, the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Wibmo, will become a part of PayU’s leadership team and report to the PayU India chief executive officer, reported Mint.

Wibmo was founded by Setlur and Veena Mistry in 1999 to provide digital payment security technology in India and other emerging markets. The Cupertino-headquartered company has built state-of-art secure operational capability and claims to have processed over a billion transactions last year. In India, the company helps banks in implementing security protocols including password authentication and risk management solutions.

PayU, headquartered in Netherlands, was founded in 2002. It provides payment gateway services and digital payment enablement services for both consumers and businesses. In India, PayU has NBFC (non-banking financial company) licence to offer credit services targeted mostly at MSMEs.

This strategic acquisition will combine PayU’s strong merchant network and Wibmo’s digital transaction security solutions to offer payments solutions to merchants and financial institutions in India and other high growth markets.

The 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, the Mint report said.

Last year, PayU crossed USD 16 million mark for credit issuance on the existing platforms.

“Through the acquisition of Wibmo, our endeavour is to positively impact and add value to the entire ecosystem including banks, consumers and merchants. We will partner with leading banks to enable digital banking, merchants will gain with higher conversions rates and increased sales," said Aakash Moondhra, chief financial officer, PayU Global.

“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," said Setlur. .