Walmart-owned digital payments platform PhonePe will be acquiring home-grown mobile platform Indus OS for $60 million, Entrackr reported.
“PhonePe and Indus OS have signed the terms of the deal two weeks ago. The transaction is a cash deal worth $60 million,” the report said citing an anonymous source.
The report said that after the acquisition Indus OS will spearhead PhonePe’s Switch platform that aggregates various applications and transform it into a ‘super app’ that would enable users to book cabs, hotels and order groceries and so on.
Quoting another unnamed source, the report said that after completion of the deal, Indus OS’ investors would exit the company with cash and would join PhonePe.
The Indus OS website claims that the platform has been installed and updated 11,000 crore times, has 4 lakh apps across all categories and 10 crore users.
Several payment apps taking super app route
This development regarding PhonePe comes weeks after PayPal Holdings Inc. announced in its financial results that the company was building a super app, encompassing payments, finance, crypto-currencies and shopping services.
Dan Schulman, president and chief executive officer of PayPal Holdings Inc said, “It will be an all-in-one personalized app that will empower our users to make the most of their money and strengthen their financial lives every day. We will provide increasingly customized and unique shopping, financial services, and payments experiences for our customers.”
In April, Walmart-backed Flipkart announced that it has acquired 100 per cent of online travel technology company Cleartrip and that it will expand its travel booking vertical.’
With this acquisition, Flipkart has expanded its footprint in a cut-throat segment, which has not only taken a hit due to the pandemic but also has the presence of chief rival Amazon India and PayTM. Both these platforms have been diversifying their offerings to include services such as food delivery, e-pharmacy, travel bookings and so on.
Also read
- PayPal is building a super app to offer customised services
- Flipkart expands travel booking business with Cleartrip acquisition
