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Prizm Payments Raises $8M More From Sequoia Capital

By Anil Das

  • 05 Aug 2011

Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has invested $8 million in Chennai-based Prizm Payment Services Pvt Ltd, an electronic payment service provider. With this additional funding, Sequoia has invested a total of $15 million in the company till date.

“The proceeds will be utilised to set up more automatic teller machines and associated technology infrastructure,” said Loney Antony, founder and managing director of Prizm Payments.

“Currently, we are rolling out 9-10 ATMs per day. Post this capital infusion, we will install 17-18 ATMs per day, which will roughly translate to 500 ATMs per month,” Antony added.

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India currently has 80,000 ATMs and roughly 25,000 ATMs will be installed during this fiscal year.  

The country has 230 million debit card holders and the number is growing, but it does not offer adequate ATM facilities. As a result, the number of transactions per ATM is close to five times the global average, Sequoia Capital India's managing director Mohit Bhatnagar told VCCircle in an e-mail message.

When asked about the opportunities in this sector, Bhatnagar said, “As Indians begin to adopt newer payment options like debit/credit cards, electronic wallets, online payment and mobile payment instead of using cash for their purchases, a bunch of new business opportunities emerge around transaction processing, security, authentication and asset management.”

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Founded in 2005 by Loney Antony, Shyam Sunder, Srinivas Rao and Raghu Nathan, Prizm Payments provides secure payments services for financial institutions, retailers and other service providers across multiple electronic channels.

With a presence in 70 tier I, tier II and tier III cities, Prizm Payments delivers services to 20 of the top corporate customers in the country. It also manages over 3,500 electronic transaction terminals (ATMs, kiosks and other financial institution devices).

Operating in the similar business space, mChek had raised $8 million from Nexus India Capital and DFJ India in 2009; Itz Cash Card had raised $10 million from Matrix Partners, Intel Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners in 2009, and in 2007, BillDesk raised $7.5 million from Clearstone and other investors.

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