MobiKwik to invest Rs 300 crore on acquiring merchants

Digital wallet MobiKwik, run by One Mobikwik Systems Pvt. Ltd, will invest Rs 300 crore this year on acquiring merchants and users, as it looks to increase its share in the highly competitive payments market.

Nearly Rs 50 crore is being invested to set up 13 offices and hire over 1,000 employees, said Daman Soni, MobiKwik's vice president for growth, in a media statement.

Soni added, ""By December 2017, the plan is to have 150 million users and 5 million merchants on our platform. We aim to clock $10 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) by the end of the year."

The company is also launching a loyalty initiative, Supercash, under which users can earn reward points at Mobikwik merchants, and save money each time they transact on the platform. MobiKwik, which is in advanced talks to raise a sizeable funding round, has received $90 million in total funding since 2012.

In August 2016, NASDAQ-listed South African payment solutions and transaction processing company Net 1 UEPS Technologies had invested $40 million in MobiKwik as part of a subscription agreement it entered into with the digital payments firm.

In May last year, the company raised $50 million in its Series C round, led by Japan’s GMO Payment Gateway and Taiwanese semiconductor company MediaTek.

Existing investors Sequoia Capital and Tree Line Asia also participated in the round. MobiKwik's investors also include American Express and US-based technology firm Cisco.