Internet technology provider Google is considering buying Pring, a Japan-based mobile payment service backed by trading group Itochu, gas utility Nippon Gas and convenience store chain FamilyMart, Nikkei has reported.
Google is in talks to pay between ¥20bn and ¥30bn ($180m to $270m) to acquire all of Pring’s shares, a move tied in with its plans to provide cashless payment and money transfer services in Japan in 2022, having launched similar offerings in the United States and India.
Nikkei contacted Google to verify the transaction but the latter declined to comment.
Founded in 2017, Pring provides a mobile app that enables users to make cashless payments and receive funds through a QR code. It counts some 50 domestic banks and convenience store operator 7-Eleven as partners.
Itochu, Nippon Gas and FamilyMart (then known as Uni FamilyMart) had all participated in a $11.4m series A round for the company in 2018, the last through subsidiary FamimaDigitalOne (then called UFI Futech).
Financial services firms SBI and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation also contributed to the series A round, through SBI Investment and SMBC Venture Capital respectively.
