Ride-hailing firm Grab buys India-based payments startup iKaaz

Southeast Asian ride-hailing firm Grab said it has acquired an India-based payments startup, iKaaz, to help expand its digital payments platform GrabPay.

Grab, which competes with Uber Technologies, said the flexibility and scalability of iKaaz’s technology made it ideally suitable for Southeast Asia’s diverse payments landscape and large unbanked population.

The iKaaz team will join Grab’s research and development centre in Bangalore, India.

The company did not disclose the deal value.

Last year, Grab bought Indonesian online payment startup Kudo.