Naspers-owned PayUMoney acquires mobile-based payments app Eashmart

Gurgaon-based PayU India Internet Pvt Ltd, that offers an online payment solution PayUMoney (earlier PayUPaisa), has acquired mobile-based payments firm Cobboc Pvt Ltd, which offers a mobile-based payments app Eashmart, to strengthen its mobile payment platform, for an undisclosed amount.

Eashmart had received an undisclosed amount in funding from IIM-A's tech incubator CIIE (Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship) and two unnamed angel investors, early this year. It was among the 10 ventures picked for iAccelerator, the flagship programme of CIIE.

As part of the transaction, the five-member, Eashmart team has joined Pay-UMoney's app development vertical where they will continue to help with the development of new app features.

Founded by Amit Kumar, a B Tech in Avionics from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (Kerala), Eashmart enables consumers to use credit/debit cards to make payments for several products/services, without having to swipe the card in a swipe machine. For instance, if a person wants to order a Pizza from a nearby Pizza Hut, he/she needs to inform the merchant in advance that the payment is to be made through Eashmart.

"PayUMoney is synonymous with the best payment solutions and is the ideal partner for us, strengthening our ability to make cashless transactions anywhere and anytime," said Kumar, founder, Eashmart.

"At PayUMoney we are focused on accelerating growth and innovation in payment space. As fewer users carry cash and rely on card payments, the trend will increase and more physically present cash payments will start getting substituted by online payments," Nitin Gupta, co-founder and chief executive officer, PayU India, said.

Started in October 2011, PayU India is part of Naspers Group and claims to be the number one payments company in the e-commerce category in the country as of now.

Naspers, which controls Gurgaon-based ibiboGroup, which runs a string of e-commerce platforms including Goibibo.com, redBus.in, Travelboutique Online and Tradus.com in India, had recently moved its payments business PayU India Internet Pvt Ltd to its global payments solution unit.

PayU India has two brands – PayU and PayUMoney. PayU is the enterprise product used by large merchants like Snapdeal, Jabong, BookMyShow, Cleartrip, GoIbibo, Redbus, Freecharge, Groupon etc. PayUMoney, on the other hand, is a free online payments solution for anyone who wants to collect payments in India—be it individuals, brick and mortar startups, freelancers, schools, hotels, etc.

Headquartered in Gurgaon, the company also has regional offices in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Shimla.

This comes across as another acquisition in India by a Naspers Group firm. Naspers' ibiboGroup had previously acquired bus ticketing venture redBus.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)