Companies
Financial transactions and content can co-exist: Infibeam’s Vishal Mehta
Summary
Infibeam has picked up a 54% stake in the news and content aggregator website for ₹50 crore, marking its entry into the financial services sector as an aggregator
Acquiring a digital media portal like Rediff.com will enhance the reach and visibility of Infibeam Avenues Ltd’s financial products and drive awareness through targeted content, Vishal Mehta, chairman and managing director of the GIFT City, Gandhinagar-based digital payments facilitator, said in an interview.
According to a stock exchange filing on Friday, Infibeam has picked up a 54% stake in news and content aggregator website Rediff.com India Ltd for ₹50 crore, marking its entry into the financial services sector as an aggregator.
The investment includes ₹25 crore in equity and ₹25 crore in debt.
Rediff.com will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary. Its standing among the top 1,000 websites by traffic will provide Infibeam with a valuable platform to showcase its financial products, Mehta added.
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“Given how iconic the brand Rediff.com is, it’s an interesting opportunity to synergize Infibeam’s financial services products with Rediff.com’s well-established content distribution capability. Financial transactions and content consumption can go hand-in-hand."
Infibeam offers digital payment solutions and enterprise software platforms to businesses and governments.
Mehta expects Rediff.com’s content capabilities to drive medium- to long-term growth. Besides, Infibeam will get access to Rediff.com’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cloud-based enterprise email storage, he added.
“We are venturing into distribution of financial products, and we think there’s a fairly large scope. We will focus on cloud enterprise setups for distribution of financial products." Data localization will play a key role in the coming years, Mehta said.
The deal will also offer Infibeam an opportunity to diversify its revenue base by onboarding more payments merchants and consumers. Currently, the fintech firm derives most of its business from enterprise software solutions.
“In this Internet world, content does drive traffic. With generative AI, content is not just videos or writeups. For financial information, a mix of various media formats like audio, video and text will certainly help amplify reach and traffic."
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Accoring to Mehta, Infibeam seeks to achieve “Uberization of payments" by leveraging video analytics to identify and customize user patterns.
In July, the had company acquired the remaining 26% stake in Infibeam Digital Entertainment Pvt. Ltd from Sony to expand its presence in digital media technology and live events.
Infibeam’s profit after tax surged 169% from ₹26 crore a year ago to ₹70 crore for the June quarter. However, operating revenue remained flat at ₹752.7 crore.
“With addition of emerging technologies and investment in innovation, especially in AI, we expect to further accelerate our company’s growth in the coming quarters. Our new business vertical in AI will play a crucial role in recalibrating the growth trajectory and deliver value to all stakeholders," Mehta added.
