Flipkart-backed super.money acquires checkout financing platform BharatX

Mumbai: Flipkart-backed UPI platform super.money has acquired BharatX, a checkout financing platform, in an all-cash deal.

Prakash Sikaria, CEO and founder of super.money told Mint that as part of the acquisition, the core team that developed BharatX will work with super.money. The team will lead BharatX for the next six months after which the arrangement will be evaluated, Sikaria added.

Sikaria, however, did not disclose the size of the transaction or the valuation of BharatX.

With the acquisition of BharatX, primarily for its tech stack, super.money aims to address the growing demand for innovative credit on UPI solutions, the Flipkart-run company said in a statement on Tuesday.

BharatX enables credit products like buy now, pay later (BNPL) and pay in X (EMI solutions), and with the acquisition, super.money, a six-month-old company, is entering a new segment: checkout financing.

“With credit cycles tightening and increased competition in the segment, many players have exited the market. As a result, there is now far less competition in checkout financing compared to a few years ago. This as an opportune time to enter the market and develop new products,” Sikaria said.

“If you look at how companies previously operated, some of the processes were cumbersome because they weren’t built on UPI rails. With UPI, checkout financing can become a seamless and viable payment alternative, providing accessible credit.”

Launched in July 2024, super.money has emerged as India’s sixth-largest UPI player, according to the latest NPCI data. Nearly two years after parting ways with digital payments giant PhonePe, the e-commerce titan Flipkart unveiled its fintech venture, super.money in August last year. The move signalled a renewed commitment to capturing a slice of India’s booming digital payments and financial services market.

So far, super.money has introduced a range of financial solutions, including superUPI, superCard, and superFD and plans to expand its portfolio with additional offerings in personal loans and unsecured credit products.

“Over the last 4 years, starting out in college, we were able to provide credit to hundreds of thousands of consumers in India profitably, without any documentation or credit score needed. Via this acquisition, we will take our product to newer heights using the wider distribution with super.money,” said Mehul Jindal, founder of BharatX.

According to the Reserve Bank of India’s 2024 Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index), nearly 70% of India’s population remains underserved by traditional financial institutions, and only 27% of adults have access to formal credit.

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