Flipkart has reportedly paid around Rs. 45.4 crores to acquire a majority stake in payments firm FX Mart, as per a report citing documents available with Registrar of Companies (RoC).
The Livemint report further mentions that Flipkart is planning to launch a payment service on its mobile apps in the next three months. Flipkart plans to integrate the payment service in its own platform as well as in Myntra, with two senior Flipkart executives joining the board of FX Mart.
Founded by Amit Narang in 2013, the firm is headquartered in Zirakpur, Mohali, and has eight offices and an agent network of over 1,000 locations across the country.
FX Mart owns a prepaid licence issued by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which will allow Flipkart to offer a digital wallet on its app and avoid paying a cut to third-party wallet services.
While Flipkart supports cash on delivery, the move suggests that the firm is looking to make inroads in the online payments and mobile wallet space. Flipkart had previously made a strategic investment in September 2014 in mobile payments firm NGPay, following the shut down of PayZippy, the secure wallet built by Flipkart. We've reached out to Flipkart for a comment on the acquisition.
In recent news in the payments space, cab aggregator Ola announced plans to integrate its mobile wallet with Oyo Rooms, Lenskart, Saavn, among other startups.
The top players in the mobile wallets space are Paytm, Freecharge, MobiKwik, PayMate, CitrusPay, and Ola Money.