India’s third largest private sector lender Axis Bank, will be acquiring the digital payments platform FreeCharge, which is owned and operated by Jasper Infotech. Sources close to the deal reported the board of Snapdeal has agreed to sell their digital wallet to the private sector lender and an official announcement will be made in the next few days.
This proposed deal will value FreeCharge at Rs. 385 crores to Rs. 390 crores, which is a steep plunge from the Rs. 2,400 crores Jasper Infotech paid to acquire the company in 2015. At the time Jasper Infotech bought FreeCharge, this deal was called the largest deal in the nascent startup ecosystem in India.
The Economic Times reported, according to sources close to Jasper Infotech, the board of the ecommerce company is also expected to approve the sale of its online market space Snapdeal, to rival Flipkart in the next few days.
The transaction will give Snapdeal the much needed breathing space to the Snapdeal management which has struggled to raise funds for over a year. The parent company Jasper Infotech has also been in talks with various other companies over the sale of their digital payments arm. Amazon was the latest on the list of interested companies with a higher offer along with Paytm, Airtel, Times Internet and PayPal.
This will also be a strategic acquisition for Axis Bank, who have their own mobile wallet, Lime. They reported a 16% year on year decline in their June 2017 quarter. This acquisition will provide Axis Bank with access to high quality technology and to about 50 million FreeCharge mobile wallet holders.
FreeCharge, which hit the markets to raise funds separately last year, passed up at least two funding rounds due to differences between board members. The digital payments app was unable to keep up with the competition from other homegrown wallet providers like PayTM and MobiKwik, post demonetization. The Snapdeal board agreed to sell the digital wallet platform and their logistics arm Vulcan Express separately.
Law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and J. Sagar Associates represent Axis Bank and FreeCharge respectively, and no investment banks were contacted for the deal.