Indian digital payments company, ItzCash has bagged $123 million from Ebix, a supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services. The latter reportedly acquired an 80% stake in ItzCash, while the remaining 20% stake will be owned by Essel Group.
Under the terms of the join venture (JV) agreement, ItzCash was valued at a total enterprise value of approximately $150 million. With an omni-channel strategy, the fintech company today deals in the prepaid cards and bill payments space, processing around 600,000 transactions per day and approximately $2 Billion in annual payment volume.
“We are thrilled to be associated with a world-leading exchange like Ebix and the opportunities that Ebix’s new investment in ItzCash offers us. This is a testament to our belief and roadmap for growth to deliver comprehensive financial services across emerging India,” said Naveen Surya, Managing Director, ItzCash.
“Ebix’s global reach and operations opens International expansion opportunities for ItzCash. We are keen to replicate our proven model, technology platform and operating experience to other emerging markets for financial services,” Surya added.
With approximately 65% of its population below the age of 35, India represents the world’s youngest and most tech-savvy market. Ebix believes that its telemedicine, health content exchanges, continuing education and health & wellness solutions can be offered now in an integrated manner, creating a healthcare offering that could be accessed by consumers, corporate partners through an online super highway and a brick & mortar set up of 75,000+ distribution outlets.
“We are big believers in the power of exchanges and thus have been keen to take an early position in India in terms of powering financial and insurance exchanges,” said Robin Raina, Chairman, President and CEO, Ebix.
“We believe that the synergies between Ebix and ItzCash are at multiple levels and the ItzCash exchange when complemented with Ebix’s portfolio of insurance & healthcare services along with our international scale, will set the foundations of a very powerful and scalable business opportunity,” Raina added.
Ebix has decided to retain the entire management team of ItzCash, aiming to power the company as India’s largest financial exchange platform, with integrated offerings for insurance, healthcare and telemedicine.