Future Enterprises acquires 55% stake in LivQuik

Mumbai: Kishore Biyani-led Future Enterprises Ltd on Wednesday acquired a 55% stake in Mumbai-based fintech startup LivQuik Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd, which operates the QuikWallet mobile app.

The Future Group subsidiary said that it intends to pick up the remaining stake in the company over the next two years to set up its own payment gateway for digital transactions.

LivQuik is an RBI-approved prepaid payment issuer, which also offers payment gateway and enterprise fintech software development services. “The acquisition will be completed within two years during which Future Enterprises will pay ₹ 20 crore for the stake and ₹ 5 crore, additionally, if required,” the company said in a press release.

In 2016, Future Group had announced a partnership with Oxigen Services for using its payment wallet and gateway. However, in the same year, the company launched its own wallet—FuturePay.

With this acquisition, it is likely to use its own back-end as a gateway. It processes 65% of its transactions digitally, as compared to 35-40% in the pre-demonetization days.

“Future Group has a very active and growing user base of consumers on the group’s digital wallet. With the acquisition of LivQuik we will simplify mobile transactions for our customers across our network in the country,” said Biyani, Future Group’s chief executive officer.

“As retailers and e-tailers gain scale, it makes sense to set up your own wallet and gateway, otherwise you end up paying some money to the service provider,” said Vivek Soni, partner and leader, private equity advisory , EY India.

Future Pay, the group’s digital wallet, has an active user base of over 6.5 million.

It plans to add one million users per month across formats such as Big Bazaar, Central, Brand Factory, eZone, Food Bazaar, fbb, Easyday Club, Hypercity, Heritage Fresh and Nilgiris, a company spokesperson said.

Future Pay also includes a special feature, Price Match, which compares prices of the items purchased to the advertised prices of other stores.