In what has become a trend of sorts among India’s unicorns lately, online-only companies are now having to resort back to offline, as a still underdeveloped online market saturates. The latest to go for that move is fintech unicorn Razorpay, as it extended its acquisition spree by adding offline payments solutions provider Ezetap to its list, in a cash-and-stock deal.
According to sources, the size of the deal is around $200 million, marking Razorpay’s venture into the offline payments segment and making it one of the few fintechs to have both an online and offline presence in the payments market. It is also one of the largest acquisitions made by the unicorn.
“Over the last eleven years, we have strived to build a robust payment ecosystem for thousands of offline businesses so that they can accept any mode of payment from their customers, across every touch point,” said Byas Nambisan, CEO of Ezetap. “We share Razorpay’s vision of simplifying payments and banking for Indian businesses.”
As part of the acquisition, some of Ezetap’s investors (which includes Social Capital and Prime Venture Partners) will get shares in Razorpay, while Ezepay’s team will manage Razorpay’s offline payments vertical.
Sources said that Razorpay may invest $50 million in Ezetap as a further bid to grow the offline business.
Razorpay’s other acquisitions this year include acquiring a majority stake in Kuala Lumpur-based Curlec and fintech startup IZealiant Technologies later on.
Razorpay’s presence in both the online and offline payments segments is a notable development in a country where offline payment is the most common choice. While digital modes of payment have gained traction over the past two years, it is not enough to make a change amongst India’s numerous businesses. That is also reflect in UPI numbers released monthly, which while have crossed trillion transactions, still largely represent P2 transactions rather than merchant ones.
Ezetap’s solutions’ include POS solutions, billing, and loyalty solutions. The same helps businesses accept in-store payments and on delivery, and so far, it serves banks – including HDFC and Axis Bank – and merchants – such as Amazon and Big basket – across 500,000 checkpoints. It operates both in India and Saudi Arabia, and is eyeing an expansion into Africa and the Middle East as well.
Founded by Abhijit Bose and Bhaktha Keshavachar, the startup leverages its decade+-long presence and experience in the Indian market to offer solutions to numerous merchants and businesses.
Currently, Ezetap processes over $10 billion in annual transactions through its platform.
It is thus little wonder that Razorpay chose Ezetap as its third acquisition of the year and sixth overall. With Ezetap’s experience and Razorpay’s expertise in operating in the digital payments space, the unicorn aims to gain a strong foothold in the offline payments space and become a premier omnichamnel payments solution for businesses.
The unicorn, in a blog post, said, “Razorpay is wherever its businesses are, wherever consumers are, and wherever India wants to pay. Thus far, we have simplified online payment for businesses with our solutions, striving to help entrepreneurs scale and grow in a digital world. Now, with Ezetap on board, we will invest the same passion and effort in simplifying in-person payments.”
