PayU eyes peer Wibmo for $50-60 mn; Quikr close to buying Zefo

Naspers-owned PayU is close to acquiring online payments firm Wibmo for an estimated $50-60 million (Rs 348.11 - 417.74 crore), a report in The Economic Times stated, citing three persons in the know.

The deal is part of PayU’s efforts to expand its operations and portfolio in India, for which the company has earmarked more than $1 billion, the report added.

The transaction will expand PayU's suite of payments offerings, which is currently aimed at online merchants, the ET report stated.

“It is the company’s policy to neither acknowledge nor deny its involvement in any merger, acquisition or divestiture activity nor to comment on market rumors," a spokesperson for PayU India told TechCircle in response to email queries on the deal.

E-mail queries sent to Wibmo seeking more information in this regard did not elicit a response at the time of publishing in this report.

Wibmo Inc. was founded in 1999 by Govind Setlur and Veena Mistry. The company offers digital payment solutions catering to banks, merchants and consumers. Besides, it also offers a hosted payment gateway that lets merchants accept payments through debit/credit card, net banking, point of sale and local payment methods.

It also provides a mobile wallet app to banks which has features such as card linking, fund transfer, payments through QR codes at offline stores, UPI transfer, etc. Additional solutions include prepaid cards, B2B payment solutions and risk and fraud management.

Accel Partners, Intel Capital, Footprint Ventures and Western Technology Investment are some of Wibmo's investors. In March last year, it bought Delhi-based payments technology startup Mypoolin in a cash-and-stock deal.

Quikr to acquire Zefo

Bengaluru-based online classifieds platform Quikr India Pvt. Ltd is set to acquire online second-hand goods marketplace Zefo for Rs 200 crore ($28.5 million) in an all-stock deal, The Economic Times reported, citing four persons in the know.

The deal will help Quikr enter the second-hand goods marketplace. Zefo will continue to exist and operate as a separate brand post the acquisition, the report added.

E-mail queries sent to Pranay Chulet, co-founder and chief executive of Quikr, seeking more information on this deal did not elicit a response at the time of filing this report.

Zefo, operated by Bengaluru-based Zero Effort Technologies Pvt. Ltd, was founded by Rohit Ramasubramanian, Arjit Gupta, Karan Gupta and Himesh Joshi in 2015.

The startup operates in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Mumbai. It sells second-hand appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and microwave ovens, and furniture products including beds, sofas and dining tables.

In October last year, TechCircle reported that it raised around Rs 21 crore (close to $3 million) in a fresh round of funding.

The round was led by New York-based stage-agnostic investment firm FJ Labs, co-founded by Fabrice Grinda, one of the founders of online classifieds firm OLX.

Events firm Tosshead secures seed capital

Bengaluru-based events equipment and packages booking marketplace Tosshead has raised Rs 36 lakh ($51,643 at current exchange rates) in seed funding from a bunch of high net-worth non-resident Indians, a company statement said.

Currently operational in Bengaluru, the startup will use the money to expand its services to other major cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad in a span of 6 to 12 months, Shank K Vasudev, founder of Tosshead told TechCircle. Part of the capital will also be used to scale up its technology infrastructure. 

Vasudev was previously a sales head at Franklin Templeton.

Tosshead Events India Pvt. Ltd, which began operations last month, allows users to book events including event packages and equipment online. It also provides services on rent such as sound, stage, lights, LED display, photography, videography, anchoring/emceeing, DJ, and manpower. The events and equipment can be booked and paid for on Tosshead which in turn pays the vendor keeping its margin. Over 75% of Tosshead's revenue is generated from individual customers (business-to-consumer) currently while it has on-boarded about 120 institutional customers (business-to-business) such as hotels and event management companies.