PayU India acquires US-based online payment firm Wibmo for $70 Mn

In a major boost to its merchant transactions offerings, digital payment major PayU India has entered the field of security solutions.

PayU India has announced the acquisition of California based payments security and mobile payments technology company Wibmo for $70 million.

With the acquisition, Naspers-owned PayU, which offers all forms of digital payment for online merchant transactions will own entire gamut of payment offerings, from payment gateway solutions to security solutions which Wibmo specialises in.

Wibmo is one of the leaders in the 3D secure space where they offer authentication services and digital payments. The company was founded by Govind Setlur. Venture capital fund Accel Partners, an early investor in Wibmo is expected to have clocked a 4X return as it exits the company.

As a part of the deal PayU will take over Wibmo but the latter will continue to operate and serve its clients as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Netherlands headquartered PayU, while Setlur will continue to lead Wibmo. As per the arrangement, Setlur will be reporting to PayU India's newly appointed chief executive officer Anirban Mukherjee.

Avendus Capital was the sole advisor to the deal.

As per the Wibmo’s website, it is certified by Mastercard, Visa, RuPay as well as PCI-DSS which means they can process card as well as mobile-based payments. Besides India Wibmo works with banks across 20 countries to offer payment authentication and risk-based decisions across a billion online and mobile-based payment transactions.

PayU also plans to harness the data flowing through the Wibmo platform to help it assess merchants better so that they can offer credit to these entities in partnership with financial institutions.

Chief Financial Officer for PayU Global Aakash Moondhra is of the viewpoint that this acquisition will positively impact and add value to the entire ecosystem including banks, consumers and merchants.