AAA Mswipe settles latest round at $30m

Mswipe settles latest round at $30m

India-based point-of-sale (POS) terminal supplier Mswipe has received $30m in funding from investors including B Capital, an investment firm backed by management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group, TechCrunch reported yesterday.

Hedge fund manager Falcon Edge Capital also took part in the round, as did investment firm Epiq Capital Investment Advisory and DSG Growth Partners, a branch of venture capital firm DSG Consumer Partners.

The news comes roughly two weeks after the Economic Times reported that the company had raised $31.5m in series E funding from B Capital subsidiary B Capital Asia, Falcon Edge, DSG Capital and two funds owned by Epiq Capital.

Mswipe markets a range of portable POS terminal products aimed at India’s small and medium-sized merchants. Its Wisepad is designed to be cost-effective and can connect to slow 2G mobile internet as well as quicker networks, a feature of particular use to clients in remote areas.

The company currently serves more than 400,000 merchants and aims to reach a total of 1.5 million in the next year. CEO Manish Patel estimates fewer than 3 million POS terminals are in operation in India at present.

Mswipe’s growth strategy includes integrating support for an Indian government-backed payments platform, introducing a smart operating system to facilitate productivity plug-ins and launching a payment card for consumers in collaboration with personal lending provider Cashe.

Epiq Capital had reportedly invested an undisclosed amount in Mswipe in August 2018, though it is unclear whether that deal formed part of the latest round.

The company closed a $41m series D round in late 2017 after adding a $10m extension from B Capital and DSG to $31m secured from ride hailing service Ola, Falcon Edge, UC-RNT Fund, Matrix Partners India and Meru Capital six months before.

Falcon Edge, had already led a $25m series C round for Mswipe in 2015 that was backed by Ola, financial services firm Axis Bank, Meru Capital and Matrix Partners India. The latter had led a series A round of undisclosed size for Mswipe in 2013, before joining Axis to invest an undisclosed amount in 2014.

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