BharatPe acquires loyalty platform PAYBACK India

Merchant payments and financial services provider, BharatPe has acquired a multi-brand loyalty platform, PAYBACK India, to help its 6 million offline merchants roll out rewards and loyalty programmes for customers. The acquisition is expected to give an exit to American Express and ICICI Investments Strategic Fund, which hold 90% and 10% stake respectively in the entity.

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PAYBACK India will continue to function independently, after the acquisition. The deal is expected to be worth $30 million, an individual aware of the discussions told Mint on condition of anonymity.

With this deal:

BharatPe, which has traditionally been powering payments and providing credit and other financial services to offline merchants, enters a consumer-facing business.
BharatPe will now also provide digital credit to customers and launch ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ (BNPL) services on the PAYBACK platform.
PAYBACK India’s customers can also redeem their loyalty points and BNPL services at offline stores through the BharatPe quick response (QR) code.

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