Singapore-headquartered fintech MatchMove Pay Pte has acquired fellow e-commerce start-up Shopmatic Pte for $200 million, a deal that signals consolidation in the start-up ecosystem in India and Southeast Asia.

The combined entity, which will operate as the MatchMove group, will target revenues of $400 million and four million customers in 15 countries, including India, by 2026, the start-ups said in a joint statement.

“Combining embedded finance tools such as credit card payments with e-commerce features such as social commerce, will smoothen the digitisation journey of small and medium businesses,” said Shailesh Naik, MatchMove’s founder and chief executive officer. 

The acquisition is the first in a series planned by MatchMove to create a rounded set of offerings that will help businesses to go fully digital. The start-up was last valued at $600 million during a funding round in June 2021, Naik said. “The group is very near profitability,” he said.

E-commerce revenues in the Asia Pacific region are forecast to double to $2 trillion by 2025, according to a Euromonitor report, while embedded finance revenues are expected to reach $140 billion by that time, the companies said in the statement.

Complementary domains

The two start-ups are in complementary domains, have Indian-origin founders and the bulk of their talent is located in India. MatchMove has over 100 customers, mainly in the Southeast Asian region, and its platform allows businesses to customise and embed financial services such as banking and credit card services. 

Shopmatic, which has over a million customers, the bulk of them in India, allows businesses to add e-commerce tools such as digitising inventory, social commerce, and web stores as well as automating their access to the world’s largest marketplaces.

Shopmatic’s co-founder and chief executive officer Anurag Avula will continue to head the e-commerce business, while Naik will lead the group as it scours for other acquisitions. “A one-stop digital services shop can better equip businesses in emerging markets to go digital,” said Shopmatic’s Avula.

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