South Africa's Net1 to invest Rs 268 cr in MobiKwik

MobiKwik has over 32 mn mobile wallet users and 1 lakh retailers onboard, aims to reaxg 150 mn users and 5,00,000 merchants

South Africa's Net1 will invest $40 million (about Rs 268 crore) in Indian digital payment company, MobiKwik.

"Net 1 UEPS Technologies has signed a subscription agreement with One MobiKwik Systems. As part of the strategic partnership, Net1 will invest $40 million in MobiKwik," the companies said in a statement.

In addition, Net1's virtual card technology will be integrated across all MobiKwik wallets, it added.

MobiKwik, which has over 32 million mobile wallet users and one lakh retailers onboard, has Sequoia Capital, Tree Line Asia, American Express, Cisco Investments, GMO Payment Gateway and MediaTek among its investors.

Over the next three years, MobiKwik aims to reach 150 million users and 500,000 merchants.

In May this year, Mobikwik had raised about Rs 330 crore in funding, led by Japanese payments firm Gateway, Taiwanese chip maker MediaTek and existing investors. Previously, MobiKwik has raised close to $ 30 million (about Rs 195 crore).

"Our strategic investment in MobiKwik provides us with meaningful participation in one of the largest and fastest growing digital payment markets globally," Net1 Chairman and CEO Serge Belamant said.

This investment will accelerate Net1's ability to build scale in India, he added.

"We can leverage India's substantial efforts to drive financial inclusion, down to the grassroots in rural and deep rural areas. Many of our solutions, most notably Universal Electronic Payment System (UEPS)/EMV, are tailor-made to provide multiple financial and other services, increase accessibility, eliminate fraud and reduce cash," he said.

Upasana Taku, co-founder of MobiKwik, said support from partners like Net1 will help further strengthen its product offering.

According to a Google-BCG study, India's digital payments industry will reach $500 billion by 2020, representing a ten-fold increase from current levels.

Nasdaq-listed Net1 operates payment processors in South Africa and the Republic of Korea. Through Transact24, Net1 offers debit, credit and prepaid processing and issuing services for Visa, MasterCard and ChinaUnionPay in China and other territories across Asia-Pacific, Europe and Africa, and the US.