Abu Dhabi Investment Authority picks up minority stake in Mobikwik for $20 million

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The UAE's sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has picked up a minority stake in the IPO-bound digital payments player Mobikwik for nearly $20 million (about Rs 150 crore), valuing it at USD 700 million, the company has said. The company was in bad press in March after alleged massive data theft, following which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had ordered a forensic audit on the Gurugram-based company set up in 2009. Personal data of its about 10 million customers were allegedly stolen by hackers.

The latest round of funding of $20 million from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority values the company at $700 million (nearly Rs 5,193 crore), according to a Registrar of Companies (RoC) filing by Mobikwik. Since March 2021, it has raised over Rs 235 crore.

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As part of these fund raises, it recently added investors such as ex-Blackstone India head Mathew Cyriac, Padma awardee Sat Pal Khattar, and ex-Infosys chief investment officer V G Dheeshjith as new shareholders. Its other investors include Sequoia Capital and Bajaj Finance. According to investment banking sources, Mobikwik is working on a Rs 1,200-crore primary share sale, which is likely to hit the markets by September.

Early March, digital wallet and payments start-up Mobikwik was in the thick of a crisis after personal data of 9.9 million of its customers were allegedly stolen by hackers. Though it denied the allegations, it was ordered to conduct a forensic audit by the Reserve Bank. Mobikwik claims one million daily transactions across its network, which include digital wallets and services like mobile phone top-ups and utility bill payments. Over three million merchants are on its network and serves over 107 million users.

According to a PwC report in December 2020, the country's digital payments market may reach Rs 163 lakh crore by next financial year. With Facebook's WhatsApp winning permission to offer payments locally, competition among digital payments players like Google Pay, Walmart' PhonePe and Paytm has increased.