PayU is a
Netherlands-based
payment service provider to online merchants.[1][2] The company was founded in 2002,[3] and is headquartered in
Hoofddorp. It allows online businesses to accept and process payments through payment methods that can be integrated with web and mobile applications.[4][5] As of 2018, the service is available in 17 countries.[6] The firm is owned by the
Naspers Group, which also owns a stake in one of its sister companies,
Tencent.[7][8]
History
PayU is the result of multiple
payment gateways in various regions of the world that have been acquired and brought into the PayU group.[9][10][11] In 2014, all
online payment companies that were part of
Naspers started operating under the PayU brand.
In 2022, it fired about 150 employees, approximately 6% of its workforce.[12]
In 2023, PayU sold its global payments business, other than those in its core markets of
India,
Southeast Asia and
Turkey, to Rapyd for $610 million.[13]
Investment and acquisitions
Acquired Zooz, an Israeli startup that provides an API to merchants.[14]
Acquired Indian payments services provider, Citrus Pay in September 2016 for $130M.[15][16]
Investment of €110M in German fintech company Kreditech, which provides machine-learning-based underwriting.[17][18]
Series A investment of $3.7M in ZestMoney, a provider of consumer finance for online purchases.[21]
Invested $5.3M in Indian fintech startup PaySense in May 2017[22]
Investment of R$60M in online credit platform Creditas (ex-BankFacil)[23][24]
2011, acquired Romanian online payments company GECAD ePayments[25][26]
2019, acquired US-based digital financial security firm Wibmo for $70M[27]
2019, acquired Turkish digital payments company Iyzico for $165M[28]
2020, acquired Indian fintech startup PaySense for $185M[29]
Operations
Europe
In November 2006, PayU SA was established and the Polish firm Platnosci.pl was merged into the group. The company also has a partnership with
Iwoca to make financing for SME firms easier.[30] In 2010, the company expanded to the Czech Republic. In 2011, the company expanded to Romania. In 2012, it began its operations in
Russia,
Ukraine,
Turkey,
Slovakia and
Hungary.[31]
Latin America
In 2002, Pagosonline was founded in
Colombia by Jose Velez, Martin Schrimpff and Santiago Spinel.[citation needed]
In 2010, PagosOnline sold a majority stake to
Buscapé, which was a part of the Naspers Group.[32] In 2011, Naspers acquired the majority stake in DineroMail.[33] In 2013, Naspers acquired the rest of the shares of DineroMail.[34] In 2012, Naspers acquired Pagosonline, replacing the former two with a new payment platform that eventually was rebranded PayU Latam, which begun operations in Panama and Peru.[35] During the course of 2013 and 2014, PayU Latam and DineroMail merged.[36][37] In 2016, Bcash and PayU, were merged under the PayU brand in
Brazil.[38]
Africa
PayJar was founded in South Africa in 2010 as part of the Naspers group to help other Naspers companies process online payments. In 2011, PayJar was rebranded to PayU.[39] In 2015, PayU expanded its operations to
Nigeria.[40][41]
India
In 2011,
Ibibo in conjunction with co-founders Nitin Gupta and Shailaz Nag, rolled out a payment gateway,
PayU, in the Indian market to permit websites to integrate e-commerce transactions through online payments.[42][43]
Products and services
PayU is a regulated
financial institution. It holds licenses from
central banks and local regulators. PayU's products include a PCI-DSS certified payment gateway,[44][45] an anti-fraud system and an online Visa/MasterCard acquirer.[46][47][48]