Excl: Payment solutions firm ItzCash raises under $15M in Series C funding

Mumbai-based ItzCash Card Ltd, a provider of pre-paid card and payment solutions, has raised under $15 million in funding from a group of unnamed strategic Asian investors, sources privy to the development told Techcircle.in.

It could not be immediately ascertained what the company plans to do with the fresh capital. Repeated calls made and an e-mail sent to ItzCash's CEO Naveen Surya did not elicit any response till the time of publishing this article.

ItzCash was launched in 2006 as a non-banking entity to offer pre-paid cash cards, and later went on to add payment solution services for offline and online marketplaces. It has presence across diverse sectors, including media & entertainment, tourism, packaging, publishing and broadcasting and financial services. The firm's founder Surya holds a bachelor's degree in Commerce & Law and a PG degree in Management with specialisation in Finance. Prior to setting up ItzCash, he had worked at TCS as a management consultant.

ItzCash had raised $10.3 million in funding from Matrix Partners, Intel Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners in July 2009. Previously, the company had netted $9.3 million in funding from Intel Capital and Matrix Partners in 2007.

Recent deals in the payments space

The payments space in India has seen a lot of action, of late. In July this year, Mumbai-based TranServ Pvt Ltd, a pre-paid payments programme manager, raised an undisclosed amount in its Series B funding led by PE fund Faering Capital's India Evolving Fund. A month earlier, Bangalore-headquartered e-payment processing solutions startup Fortune Payment Solutions India Pvt Ltd had secured under $1 million led by Kae Capital.

Around the same time, Bangalore-based mobile payments service provider Ezetap had acquired Clinknow, a provider of loyalty platform for retailers. This deal happened a couple of months after the firm raised an undisclosed amount in funding from American Express.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)