Amazon Pay India, Amazon India’s payments arm, is inn talks to acquire Bengaluru-based app aggregator Tapzo to ramp up its digital payments business in the country.
Amazon Pay India is planning to pick up Tapzo in a cash-and-stock deal valuing the company at $30-40 million, two people close to the deal told The Mint. It was founded in 2009 by Ankur Singla, Vishal Pal Chaudhury, Avinash Vankadaru, and Vishrut Chalsani.
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Tapzo had raised Rs 100 crore in Series B funding from Sequoia India and Ru-Net in May 2015, followed by an undisclosed Series C round in late 2016 led by American Express Ventures.
An Amazon spokesperson, did not confirm the Tapzo acquisition, but said the company “remained focused on building its digital payments business in India. Our commitment to the vision of a less-cash India remains the same. Our goal is to make it easier than ever before for customers to make digital payments by improving customer experience, affordability and daily routines.”
On Tuesday, Amazon launched a new bill payments service, which will enable prepaid and postpaid bill payments on the Amazon Pay platform. As part of the new service, the company has tied up with hundreds of billers for electricity, mobile and broadband bill payments, among others.
In its current avatar, Tapzo allows users to access over 35 apps, including Flipkart, Amazon, Uber and Ola. Owned and operated by Coraza Technologies, the startup was launched as a complaint redressal forum called Akosha, but was re-launched later as Helpchat, a personal assistant platform with chatting feature. Tapzo came into being in November 2016.
Other developments in India’s digital payment segment:
- Paytm, owned by One97 Communications Ltd, has raised an undisclosed amount from Warren Buffett-owned Berkshire Hathaway.
- Google partnered with four Indian banks—HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Federal Bank — to offer instant, pre-approved loans to customers.
- Amazon has been aggressively investing in building its payments business in India – earlier this year it invested $22 million in digital lending firm Capital Float followed by a $12 million in digital insurance start-up Acko.
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