South Africa based Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. has signed a subscription agreement with MobiKwik.
MobiKwik has over 32 million users and 100,000 retailers. MobiKwik’s current shareholders include Sequoia Capital, Tree Line Asia, American Express, Cisco Investments, GMO Payment Gateway and MediaTek, as well as Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, the founders and executive officers.
As part of the strategic partnership, Net1 will invest $40 million in MobiKwik.
In addition, through our technology agreement, Net1’s Virtual Card technology will be integrated across all MobiKwik wallets in order to provide ubiquity across all merchants in India.
Our strategic investment in MobiKwik provides us with meaningful participation in one of the largest and fastest growing digital payment markets globally,” said Serge Belamant, Chairman and CEO of Net1. “We are excited to partner with one of India’s most utilized and recognized digital platforms, through which we can introduce our products and services. We believe that this investment will accelerate our ability to build scale in India. Over the next three years, MobiKwik has targeted having 150 million users and 500,000 merchants, and the introduction of our various technologies is expected to enhance their value proposition and differentiation to users, online and offline merchants, increase acceptance, and accelerate growth.
According to a July 2016 Google-BCG study, the size of India’s digital payments industry will reach $500 billion by 2020, representing a ten-fold increase from current levels. The report predicts that more than 50% of India’s internet users are expected to use digital payments by 2020, and the top 100 million users are expected to drive 70% of digital payments by value.
