ShopClues acquires mobile payment start-up Momoe to expand business

Online marketplace ShopClues, which recently joined the billion-dollar valuation club, has acquired Bengaluru-based startup Momoe in a bid to build a payments business. This deal will mark ShopClues’s entry in Bengaluru, the start-up capital of the country.

All five Momoe founders are also joining the senior management team of ShopClues, in several functions like design, corporate development and technology.

As per ET reports, the deal is valued at $10-12 million, to be paid in both cash and stock; however, the deal size was not confirmed by Sanjay Sethi, ShopClues CEO.

Momoe, which was founded by Utkarsh Biradar, Karthik Vaidyanathan, Ganesh Balakrishnan, Neelesh Bam, and Aiman Ashraf, has been in business for two years now.

Biradar will be joining ShopClues as VP, heading design and product on the merchant side; Balakrishnan will lead platform monetisation and services; Bam will head merchant acquisition helping ShopClues expand base in South India; Ashraf will head technology for payment and Vaidyanathan will work on strategic initiatives along with ShopClues cofounder Radhika Aggarwal.

"Momoe comes with a working merchant base, PCI compliance which would have taken us 8-12 months to obtain and banking relationships. Building a payments business requires a different DNA," said Sethi.

Using Momoe's technology, ShopClues will be able to build payments solutions for its merchant base, for them to use it for not only online transactions but also for offline payments.

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