Domestic payment gateway BillDesk is once again looking for buyers, after an unsuccessful attempt in 2018.
According to a Mint report citing sources, there are two major reasons to sell off the business. Firstly, the demand for digital payment platforms and ewallets embedded with ecommerce benefits has increased significantly over the past year, but BillDesk has stuck to its payment gateway which enables only banking and merchant website transactions. This has pulled BillDesk behind competitors which offer an end-to-end payments solution suite.
Secondly, private equity investors, especially the largest stakeholder in BillDesk, General Atlantic, has also been tilting towards companies to offer more customer-facing digital payment and ecommerce services.
All BillDesk promoters are also trying to sell off the entire business, and have called at least eight investment bankers including Goldman Sachs, J P Morgan and Morgan Stanley. Besides this, General Atlantic, who is the largest shareholder in the company, will also be part of this discussion to shortlist a buyer. BillDesk and its promoters also held its first meeting earlier this week, and will discuss a detailed plan about the sell off next week.