MasterCard buys Sam Pitroda's mobile wallet firm C-SAM

Global financial services company MasterCard Worldwide has acquired C-SAM Inc, a mobile wallet and on-device solutions firm founded by Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Prime Minister of India and head of the National Innovation Council. The financial details of the deal are not disclosed.

With this acquisition, MasterCard will speed up the development and deployment of mobile wallets and payment solutions globally, including the rollout of its MasterPass digital service. The deal is expected to be complete in the first quarter of this year.

Founded in 1998, C-SAM provides a secure mobile transactions technology offering a range of mobile apps for financial as well as non-financial services to banks, merchants, settlement networks, healthcare providers, among others.

Headquartered in Chicago, it has powered many commercial mobile payments services in India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, the US and Vietnam. The C-SAM platform also supports customer-specific offers, loyalty incentives, banking, bill-pay options and non-financial secure transactions. The company also has operations in Singapore, Japan and India.

MasterCard operates a payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. C-SAM's expertise will support MasterCard's work with financial institutions to bring new, innovative and secure solutions to market.

AT the same time, C-SAM's on-device app and back-end infrastructure will aid MasterCard's efforts to enable consumers to use MasterPass both in-store and online across multiple communications technologies, including NFC, QR/barcodes and remote checkout.

"Consumers today are living digital lifestyles, shopping in new ways using a range of new products and devices. Bringing C-SAM's mobile expertise into MasterCard will help us launch a wider range of mobile and virtual solutions better and faster – bringing convenience and choice to consumers, while adding value to our expanding partnerships with telcos, governments and merchants," said Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer, MasterCard.

Early last year MasterCard Advisors, a division of MasterCard, had bought an equity stake in Indian Big Data firm Mu Sigma for an undisclosed amount.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)