ItzCash investors sell 80% to US-based firm for ~800 cr

Digital payments firm ItzCash on Wednesday said its investors have sold for ~800 crore 80 per cent of the company's stake to US-headquartered Ebix, an international supplier of on-demand software and e-commerce services to insurance, financial, e-governance and health care industries. The rest 20 per cent would be held by Essel group, which is the main backer of the firm.

The move has helped early-stage investors, which include private equity players such as Matrix Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Intel Capital, get an exit from the investment at up to five times the amount they put into the company. ItzCash in the last decade raised around $35 million. "With this deal, we have been able to give our early-stage marquee investors a three to five times return on their investment. Now, with Ebix as the majority stakeholder, we would be looking at the next stage of growth as well as global expansion," said Naveen Surya, managing director, ItzCash.

ItzCash claims to be the only payments solutions player that turned profitable this year, while having grown at a compound annual growth rate of 35 per cent over the last three years.

ItzCash, a financial exchange for payment solutions, connects 75 million consumers and 1,500 corporate partners on its integrated payments solutions highway. With an omni-channel strategy that encompasses a distribution network of 75,000 physical retail outlets, it has done ~14,000 crore in payment volume in FY17 and processes 600,000 transactions per day. With offices across Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, the US, and the UK, Ebix powers multiple exchanges across the world in the field of life, annuity, health and property and casualty insurance while conducting in excess of $100 billion in insurance premiums annually on its platforms. ItzCash plans to now promote a slew of financial services powered by Ebix and is aiming for a major expansion in India and across the globe, where the US-based company Ebix has a footprint.

ItzCash registered a revenue growth of 40 per cent to ~250 crore across all its business verticals in the current year. The company also plans to go for an initial public offering (IPO) in the next three years. "We plan to go for an IPO and are working towards that. It could well be in the next three years," added Surya.

Founded in 2006, the company has since expanded into new businesses verticals such as remittances, financial services, corporate solutions, point of sale (POS) machines and payment gateway for diversified revenue stream. With the new investment by Ebix, the company is looking to foray into areas such as credit, insurance, health care, and investments to accelerate growth momentum.