Gujarat-based Infibeam Avenues announced that it had signed an agreement for a 54% stake in Rediff.com. This will mark the beginning of its consumer-facing digital financial service as an aggregator. Infibeam will synergize its various digital payment services and platform business offerings with AI solutions that are to be offered with the services of Rediff.com to create an overall digital environment where financial transactions and content consumption coexist. This can be expected to increase user engagement, with new revenue streams opening up.
The internally funded acquisition is reportedly valued at close to Rs 50 crore.
Rediff has a considerable user database and data assets and figures in the top 1000 sites of the world in terms of traffic with more than 55 million visitors a month, hence offering valuable insight into user behavior and preference.
Spending patterns, among others, provide fertile ground for the cross-selling of financial products using artificial intelligence like loans, insurance, and investment products. The platform can be used to promote these services to increase their uptake and provide customer lifetime value through RediffMONEY.
Infibeam shall also diversify its portfolio offering by synergizing with the enterprise email from Rediff.com; enterprise email to merchants; financial services to consumers; and content businesses, which shall help open new revenue streams.
This would also stream the company’s footprint in the digital economy, which is backed by its regulatory capabilities.
Infibeam has in-house robust regulatory compliance capabilities, built over decades while operating digital payment gateway business, CCAvenue. Infibeam also has the regulatory authorization from Reserve Bank of India to operate as a Payment Aggregator under the Payment Settlement Act, 2007. It also has a perpetual license from RBI for its bill payment business, Bill Avenue, to operate as a Bharat Bill Payment Operation Unit under Bharat Bill Payment System.
On the international turf, the international subsidiary of the company, Infibeam Avenues Saudi Arabia Limited, became the first Indian Fintech player to get PTSP certification from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority. This would enable it to get onboarding as a Payment Processor or PTSP in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
By leveraging the intrinsic strengths of Rediff.com, along with its organic traction among its audiences for news and dominance with 5,000+ corporate email clients, Infibeam plans to further amplify its growth in business across product and service offerings in both domestic and international markets.
“This majority stake marks a big milestone in scaling up company’s offerings and products, further mentioning the firm is likely to see revenue growth manifolds with its foray into the financial
segment as an aggregator in the coming few quarters” reiterated Mehta. Last month, Rediff reported revenues of INR 360 Million in FY23-24.
