iKaaz offers an NFC-based (near field communication) mobile payments platform. New Delhi: SoftBank-backed Grab, Uber’s biggest competitor in Southeast Asian markets—chiefly Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia—has acquired Bengaluru-based software start-up iKaaz, whose mobile payments solution will be integrated with Grab’s own payments platform. The team at iKaaz will join Grab’s Bengaluru research centre to work on “feature development and partner integration of GrabPay, Grab’s payments platform,” Grab said on Wednesday. The venture was started in 2012 by Soma Sundaram, who held senior engineering roles at Nokia Money and Obopay, a California-based mobile payments start-up firm. In April, it acquired Indonesian mobile payments start-up Kudo for an estimated $100 million to develop the payments piece with an initial focus on Indonesia, TechCrunch reported.

Source: Mint January 17, 2018 17:48 UTC