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PayU eyes full stack digital commerce play

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Pratik Bhakta

, ETtechLast Updated: Sep 02, 2024, 02:47:00 PM IST

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Synopsis

Digital payments company PayU is looking to expand its consumer fintech offerings through LazyPay, while maintaining its core focus on merchant payments. The Naspers-owned fintech firm plans to leverage LazyPay to develop a consumer payments and credit platform. CEO Anirban Mukherjee said PayU is hopeful about regulations on allowing nonbank lenders on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for tapping credit opportunities.

Naspers-backed fintech firm PayU is looking to grow its consumer vertical by leveraging the LazyPay mobile application. While merchant payments will remain the core of its business, PayU will use LazyPay to build a full stack consumer payments and credit business, said Anirban Mukherjee, chief executive at PayU.

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“LazyPay is growing fast right now, but we will build a consumer brand around LazyPay. (So PayU will) not only be B2B in the long run, thereby extending its model to build a B2B2C platform. We will serve enterprise merchants, financial institutions and consumers,” Mukherjee said in an interview.

PayU, which started as an online merchant payments business, has expanded its services to become a full stack fintech firm in India through the credit business by acquiring Paysense, building LazyPay, and a tech stack for financial firms through Wibmo, which it acquired in 2019.

All the major sub-brands within PayU such as LazyPay and Wibmo, currently operating as independent brands, will eventually be unified under the mother brand PayU, Mukherjee said.

He said PayU is optimistic about regulations on allowing nonbank lenders on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for tapping credit opportunities on UPI.

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Also Read | PayU's Wibmo building full-stack payment gateway solutions

Going full stack

Mukherjee said PayU is also looking at wealth management and insurance distribution as part of its long-term expansion plans. The firm owns a 30% stake in Bengaluru-based wealthtech startup Fisdom.

“We also think cross border payments is a good opportunity, and as a OPGSP licence holder currently, we can operate in this space. We have also invested in early stage startup BriskPe, which is focused on cross border payments,” Mukherjee added.

OPGSPs or online payment gateway solution providers have been brought under the ambit of Payment Aggregator Cross Border (PA-CB) licence by the Reserve Bank of India.

Also Read | PayU India FY24 consolidated revenue rises 22% to $1.1 billion

Eventual goal: IPO

The PayU management is driving towards its eventual goal of a public listing though Mukherjee declined to give a timeline.

He said the company is on track for the listing and it has already achieved the first step towards that goal by creating an independent Indian business with its own governing board.

PayU recently received the RBI nod for an in-principle approval to operate in India as an online payment aggregator and is on track to get the complete nod.

“Currently we have three independent directors on the board with Renu Sud Karnad as the chairperson, but our eventual aim is to have a five independent member board of directors,” Mukherjee said.

Also Read | PayU receives RBI’s in-principle nod to operate as a payment aggregator