Digital payments gateway PayU eyes acquisitions to enter lending segment

Digital payments gateway PayU India is looking to take an M&A (mergers and acquisitions) route to enter the ever-growing lending segment in the country.

The firm, which is owned by South Africa’s Naspers Ltd, plans to either acquire or partner start-ups, companies and banks to offer both secured and unsecured loans in the Indian market by April, Shailaz Nag, its chief operating officer and co-founder, told BusinessLine. These M&As could be both domestic and global, Nag added. The company has already made three such investments in companies —Kreditech, Paysense and ZestMoney — for consumer and SME lending.

“Lending is going to be the biggest focus in the fintech this year. We will be launching soon and targeting all segments of loans from housing to personal to small ticket credits,” Nag said, adding that as a payment gateway, the company has already entered the EMI (equal monthly instalment) through LazyPay.

Nag said that this year, the company will be investing in firms that have strong under-writing capability and that it might look at 3-4 such investments this year. The company will be focussing on e-commerce, travel and education space for loans. “EMI is driving the business for consumer durables products in India adding 60 per cent of the business for consumer durables comes from EMIs,” Nag added.

On future investments, Nag said the company has not set aside any specific funds. “If we find a good company with great product and founders we will invest through Naspers. There is lot of potential in the Indian market which is a credit hungry market,” Nag said, adding that in the last five years, the company has invested over $265 million to strengthen its business in India.

PayU is now betting on different other segments to dominate the fintech space in India by tapping small businesses (both exports and imports), data and credit.

He further added that PayU has witnessed 100 per cent growth since last one year and has processed ₹7,873 crore per month or a runrate of $13 billion per year crore of transactions monthly and expects its payment business to be profitable in the next 2-3 years.