SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian financial technology company Ebanx is expanding operations to India, marking its entry into the Asian market ahead of plans to eventually launch an initial public offering (IPO), the firm said on Monday.
The move is part of the company’s global expansion strategy in developing countries and comes shortly after it announced its move into three nations in Africa last year, the first outside Latin America.
Ebanx will enable global merchants to offer Indian customers the most popular local payment methods, starting with the local payment system Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and cards, it said.
“As the Indian market warmly embraces digital payments and digital commerce continues its rapid growth, we see great opportunities for businesses and meaningful partnerships being fostered,” said Paula Bellizia, Ebanx president of global payments.
She said Ebanx intends to expand into new Asian markets in less than a year.
In Latin America, Ebanx processes payments for companies such as Airbnb, Spotify and Uber.
Ebanx said early last year it was postponing plans for an IPO in the United States and a private fundraising – which did not happen – after reaching a valuation of $1 billion in 2019.
Since postponing the offering, the company, which counts Advent and FTV Capital as shareholders, ended a venture into digital consumer accounts, returning focus to its core business. It also laid off at least 20% of employees.
An IPO could still come in one to three years, but “it depends on India,” and also on the company’s expansion, Bellizia said.
(Reporting by Andre Romani; Writing by Peter FrontiniEditing by Tomasz Janowski and Bill Berkrot)
