Southeast Asia focused ride-hailing service Grab has acquired iKaaz, an Indian payments startup, for an undisclosed sum.
iKaaz, which was founded in 2014, incorporates payment technologies such as NFC, QR-code, audio-based, bill, online and peer-to-peer payments.
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Through the acquisition, Grab aims to power the expansion of its digital payments platform GrabPay.
The Ikaaz team will join Grab’s Bangalore R&D centre as part of the deal.
GrabPay Southeast Asia managing director Jason Thompson said: “iKaaz’ technology has served merchants and partners across different industries and in different settings, from parking lots and airports to retail stores and hotels. This rich set of offline payments features offers the flexibility needed to tailor our GrabPay platform to each country and partner in Southeast Asia.
“We look forward to leveraging the expertise of iKaaz’ leadership team and build GrabPay into SEA’s universal payments platform together.”
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By GlobalDataIn addition, Grab also unveiled plans to hire 200 engineers for the Bangalore R&D centre by the end of this year. The site, which is one of Grab’s six such units, currently houses 75 engineers.
