Lightspeed Venture Partners has led a Rs 50 crore investment round in Essel Group-promoted Itz Cash Card, picking up an undisclosed stake in the Mumbai-based multi-purpose pre-paid card company. Existing investors Matrix Partners India and Intel Capital, who invested $10 million in the company in 2007, have also participated in this round. The company will use the money to venture into the retail payments space, apart from expanding its product portfolio.
Bejul Somaia (in photo), managing director of Lightspeed India, will join the Itz Cash Card board. The Menlo Park, California-headquartered venture and growth capital investor, which invests out of New Delhi and Bangalore here, sees “significant growth potential for this product given that cash accounts for approximately 97 per cent of the country’s retail payments, which exceed $500 billion,” said Somaia in a press release. Read the full story
