Naspers Gobbles Up India’s Citrus Payments
Naspers, a South-African-based media and Internet company and parent of online payment service provider PayU, is acquiring Mumbai, India-based online payments company Citrus Payments Solutions in a cash deal valued between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 1,200 crore (US$150 million to $180 million), according to The Times of India. In addition to India, PayU operates 16 markets in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa, with more than 160,000 merchants on the platform.
Not only will the deal be one of the richest in the Indian payments market, it likely will make Naspers the leader in the online commerce space in terms of market share with Citrus and PayU providing payment solutions to merchants, according to the report. Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is believed to have made an unsuccessful run at acquiring Citrus, the story said.
Citrus opened for business in 2011 and offers payment processing, enterprise payment SaaS solutions and consumer payment services. Sequoia Capital was an early investor, and the company last October raised approximately $25 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, Ascent Capital, eContext Asia and Beenos Asia.
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