Payment solutions provider Ezetap, which has raised $51 million in four funding rounds till date, is looking to raise an additional $60 million (approx. Rs. 447 crore) in the coming months and has appointed Unitus Capital to scout for "potential suitors".
Mint had reported on January 22 that payments gateway giant Razorpay was in talks to acquire a majority stake in the firm. However, Byas Nambisan, the chief executive and co-founder of the firm, neither confirmed nor denied the talks. He said the company is in talks with various global and local investors, most of whom could be strategic investors. "Prominent" venture capital funds are also in the fray.
The company already counts Social Capital, Helion Advisors, American Express, Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures, JS Capital (Jonathan Soros), and Prime Venture Partners among its investors.
Nambisan said Ezetap is eyeing Rs. 7500 crore in annual revenues by 2024, and plans to expand its footprint to over a million merchants by 2023, by partnering with banks. He added that $35 million of the funds it’s looking to raise will be used for expansion into new geographies.
According to Nambisan, the company plans to expand to the Middle-East and African regions next. It already has partnerships with Mashreqbank PLC and Network International in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He added the company looks to invest in two more areas, including increasing its tech and service teams that service banking partners, and to invest in “device-less and online solutions” for payments. The device-less solution will allow kirana and mom-and-pop stores to turn their phones into point-of-sale machines, through a payment acceptance app.
“One of the biggest pain points today is how to have a quick payment acceptance solution without the whole headache of a device. More so with multiple wallets, UPI (united payment interace), etc. they (merchants) are unable to see all customer payments in a single place. The solution should be an easy, effective one for all kinds of payment acceptance while being asset free, low-cost and quick to get started,” Nambisan said.
“Fintech companies have to expand themselves by providing more modules. For instance, the market for PayTM is saturated now and they are looking for geographical expansion,” said a fintech analyst, who requested anonymity as he is not allowed to comment on specific companies. The analyst added that fintech firms like Ezetap have to find ways to expand the scope of their products in order to avoid being “eaten up” by traditional companies, including banks.
“I have seen that happening in the US, the neo banks are being acquired by bigger traditional banks everyday, just because while their innovation was relevant or appropriate at the time of their launch, they never moved on from there. Innovation is very important,” the above-cited analyst said.
