Decoding PayU’s $300 mn+ lending play

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Editor's note: PayU is on a roll. The digital payments company, owned by South African media and tech conglomerate Naspers, has spent in the vicinity of $500 million on fintech acquisitions and investments globally in just the past two years. To cap it all off, two weeks ago, PayU announced it was buying PaySense, a tiny Mumbai-based startup which runs an app offering quick personal loans in one of India’s biggest ever fintech deals. PaySense—which recorded revenue of about Rs 18 crore ($2.5 million) in the year ended 31 March 2019—was valued at $185 million. PayU, which already held about 19% in the company, raised its stake to around 80%, Entrackr reported; PayU didn’t specify exactly how much it paid, but it would be north of $100 million at least. The only bigger transactions have been e-commerce firm Snapdeal’s acquisition of digital wallet FreeCharge for over $400 million in 2015 (though it was mostly paid in stock) and PayU’s own acquisition in 2016 of rival payment gateway Citrus Pay for $130 million in cash. FreeCharge turned out to be a dud, with …