Visa Buys Minority Stake In Payments Gateway Billdesk 

Visa Inc. is buying minority stake in Mumbai-based payments gateway BillDesk, as the companies look to cement their position in India's highly competitive payments ecosystem.

While the terms of the deals weren't disclosed, Visa said in a statement that the investment will help BillDesk develop product lines for its payments and loyalty businesses and also expand its footprint into other geographies.

“Having worked with BillDesk's founders over the years, the Visa leadership has been consistently impressed with their vision, market knowledge and execution capabilities, as well as alignment on values," Chris Clark, Asia Pacific regional president for Visa, said. “This investment further reinforces our long-term commitment to India's digital payments growth story.”

The deal will help Visa grab a pie of India's digital payments ecosystem that has been disrupted by the emergence of Unified Payments Interface—whose usage by global technology giants like WhatsApp Pay and Google and homegrown peers like Flipkart's PhonePe—has made India's digital market highly competitive.

The investment is subject to necessary statutory approvals and is expected to have no direct bearing on Visa's existing Indian business, the statement said.

Founded in 2000 by three former Arthur Andersen executives MN Srinivasu, Ajay Kaushal and Karthik Ganapathy, BillDesk is one of India's few profitable internet companies.

Backed by private equity firms TA Associates and General Atlantic, BillDesk provides payment solutions for customers in e-commerce, financial services, retail and other sectors. It competes with the likes of PayU, CCAvenue, Razorpay and others.

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