Report: PayU Indian IPO Could Value Company at $7 Billion

Payments company PayU is reportedly planning to go public in India next year.

As Reuters reported Tuesday (Oct. 10), PayU plans to seek regulatory approval in February for an initial public offering (IPO) worth at least $500 million, according to sources with direct knowledge. The sources told Reuters the IPO could value PayU at between $5 billion and $7 billion.

According to the report, PayU plans to list by the end of 2024. PYMNTS has contacted the company for comment but has not yet received a reply.

PayU owner Prosus announced in August it was selling the bulk of its global business to Rapyd for $610 million so it could focus on the Indian payment and FinTech space. PayU has said it has more than 450,000 merchants and two million credit customers in India.

“Innovation and progressive regulation are driving rapid change within the digital payments industry in India, and we see many new opportunities to further expand our business there,” Bob van Dijk, Prosus’ then-CEO, said in a news release at the time. “As one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world, we strongly believe in digital India and are excited about the next phase of growth for PayU in India.”

As noted here, India has one of the world’s fastest-growing eCommerce markets, with yearly online sales surpassing $67 billion in 2021. Nearly 90% of its adult residents use mobile wallets, while 833.7 million consumers are connected to the internet.

Last month, PayU announced it was teaming with Meta’s WhatsApp to bring in-chat payments to WhatsApp users in India, home to WhatsApp’s biggest base of customers.

PayU said the collaboration gives WhatsApp-enabled PayU merchants access to the PayU Checkout platform. That in turn allows customers to use more than 150 payment options, including cards, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and net banking, directly within the WhatsApp platform, without a need for redirection.

PYMNTS’ Intelligence has shown that 48% of consumers in India paid for their last retail purchase through UPI. 

“UPI is more popular for digital retail purchases: 55% of India’s consumers paid for their most recent digital retail purchase with UPI, while 37% did the same for in-store retail purchases,” PYMNTS wrote in August. “UPI is also the preferred payment method when purchasing retail products, as half of surveyed consumers identified UPI as their preference.”