American Express has reportedly bought a minority stake in Indian payment startup, Ezetap. The company makes mobile friendly payment devices which can help merchants transact without the need to operate and install POS counters. Ezetap’s service lets users attach their device to their smartphones and let them take payments from consumers while recording all the payment data in the cloud. This helps ease the transaction process and brings greater accountability.
Ezetap was also in the news recently for having raised Rs.49.8 crore with Helion Venture Partners leading the funding round. The company was founded in 2011 and was incubated by startup accelerator AngelPrime. According to the data available, the company has sold 12000 devices across South East Asia and Africa. The money that they raised will be used to fund their growth in these emerging markets over the period of the next year. The company says that its goal is to reach the 100,000 device mark in the coming year.
American Express and Ezetap have both not released the amount of cash involved in the transaction. American Express is willing to bet on the fact that Ezetap will make credit and debit card usage grow higher in India which has lagged in terms of convenient POS solutions compared to the number of credit/debit card holders. The Ezetap device costs around Rs.3000 and can introduce the convenience of card based transactions in areas where cash transactions have been predominant.
Source | ET
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