India payments firm raises $23m from Helion, Social+Capital

Other participants included Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Li Ka-Shing; Berggruen Holdings; and the Capricorn Investment Group. Social+Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya will become the chairman of Ezetap's board as part of the transaction.

The company will use the new funds to add new merchant and payment agent clients, according to a statement. It hopes to reach 200,000 clients from its current total of 60,000 within the next year.

Ezetap designs and manufacturers mobile point of sale devices that can be plugged in to smart phones, turning them into credit card readers. Its devices are aimed at small businesses, e-commerce, bill collectors and banking service providers. The company claims to process more than $1 million in transactions per day.

Helion, Social+Capital and Berggruen Holdings have previously invested in Ezetap. Social+Capital participated in the company's Series A round in 2012, alongside PayPal's Peter Thiel, existing investor AngelPrime, and others. Helion and Berggruen later joined Social+Capital and American Express Venture in 2014 for an $8 million investment.

Payment solutions have been a popular target for investment in India amid the boom of the country's e-commerce sector. Mswipe, which provides a similar product to Ezetap, raised a $25 million Series C round this July from Matrix Partners, Falcon Edge Capital and Meru Partners, while Alipay paid $550 million in February for a 25% stake in online wallet provider Paytm.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Financials
• Expansion
• Venture
• GPs
• India
• Helion Ventures
• Financial Services
• Growth capital
• Venture
• GPs