Payments company Suvidhaa Infoserve has acquired a 5% equity stake in e-commerce platform Infibeam.com for Rs 25 crore. A BSE regulatory filing (pdf) from Monday shows that NSI Infinium Global, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infibeam Avenues which operates Infibeam.com, has entered into a MoU with Suvidhaa Infoserve. The deal values Infibeam.com at Rs 500 crore. The investment will let Infibeam expand its last mile service with Suvidhaa’s 90,000 retail partners across the country. The companies plan to develop an omni-channel marketplace wherein Infibeam.com’s marketplace will be connected to Suvidhaa’s retailers. Infibeam will divest NSI Infinium Global to Suvidhaa at a later date via the scheme of amalgamation. After the merger, Infibeam.com’s sales channels and NSI’s retail channel stores will be managed by the merged entity. Web store technology for retailers will be handled by Infibeam Avenues. Suvidhaa is backed by Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry, who owns a minority stake in Suvidhaa. It processed payments with a gross transaction value (GTV) of Rs 10,000 crores, without specifying if this was through its existence or in the current FY. Suvidhaa was launched in 2007 in Mumbai and provides financial and payments services with 300 partners. It also helps process loans, mutual fund investments and insurance, and offers utility bill payments for electricity, gas, travel, etc. Infibeam- Go Payments investment Earlier this month, Infibeam picked up a 48% stake in Mumbai based Go Payments aka Instant Global Paytech Private Limited (IGPL), a payments company which offers money transfer, mobile recharges, bill payments, travel booking…
