Momoe

Momoe Technologies Pvt. Ltd. was a fintech company that entered the Indian market with a mobile payment application designed to streamline transactions for consumers at offline retail points.

Founded in April 2014 by a team of five individuals—Utkarsh Biradar, Ganesh Balakrishnan, Vaidyanathan Karthik, Neelesh Bam, and Aiman Ashraf—the company was established in Bengaluru, India. The founding team was comprised of alumni from prestigious institutions like the IITs and IIMs, with collective experience in design, strategy, and technology at companies such as Honeywell, Qualcomm Ventures, and Bain. The idea for Momoe stemmed from the founders' shared frustration with the inconvenience of traditional payment methods, like waiting for bills at restaurants or standing in queues at stores. They aimed to create a cashless experience where users could complete all their daily transactions using only their mobile phones.

The company's core product was a mobile app, available on both iOS and Android, that allowed users to make payments at various offline merchants, including restaurants, grocery stores, and salons. Unlike virtual wallets that required pre-loading cash, Momoe's application functioned by linking directly to a user's credit or debit card details, offering a more direct payment channel. For merchants, Momoe provided a digital payment acceptance solution. The business model was based on charging merchants a percentage-based fee for each transaction processed through the platform, similar to the rates of mobile point-of-sale terminals.

In November 2014, Momoe secured $1.2 million in a significant seed funding round. The investment was led by Jungle Ventures and IDG Ventures India (now Chiratae Ventures), with participation from India Quotient. This capital injection was intended to expand the team and increase the number of partner merchants. By early 2015, the service was live in Bangalore with plans for expansion into other major Indian cities.

A major milestone in the company's trajectory was its acquisition by the online marketplace ShopClues in July 2016. The deal, estimated to be between $10-12 million in a mix of cash and stock, was a strategic move by ShopClues to build out its own payments ecosystem. The acquisition provided ShopClues with a ready-made, PCI-compliant payment technology, established banking relationships, and a team with expertise in the payments sector, which would have taken a significant amount of time to build internally. Following the acquisition, all of Momoe's founders joined the senior management team at ShopClues to integrate the technology and develop payment solutions for ShopClues' vast merchant base.

Keywords: Momoe, mobile payments, fintech India, ShopClues acquisition, Utkarsh Biradar, Ganesh Balakrishnan, Vaidyanathan Karthik, Neelesh Bam, Aiman Ashraf, digital wallet, point of sale payments, offline merchants, payment gateway, Jungle Ventures, IDG Ventures India, India Quotient, Bangalore startup, e-commerce payments, consumer payments, payment processing, cashless society, debit card payments, credit card payments, merchant solutions, startup exit