Naspers’s global fintech company, PayU, is expanding into Southeast Asia with the acquisition of Singapore-based Red Dot Payment.

PayU is acquiring a majority stake in the online payment solutions provider at a total valuation of US$65-million (R914-million).

With this transaction, PayU brings the total amount deployed in fintech investments to more than $700-million in the past three years, Naspers said in a statement on Friday.

“The move demonstrates PayU’s commitment to becoming the leading payments solution provider in high-growth markets and one of the largest fintech investors in the world,” it said.

Red Dot Payment (RDP) was founded in 2011 by payment experts from various Fortune 500 companies and is now Singapore’s largest homegrown and online payment solutions fintech company, it added. “With an ever-expanding presence across Southeast Asia, including offices in Indonesia and Thailand, RDP has been focused on booming verticals such as online retail, hospitality, charity, food delivery and more.”

The region is home to 350 million Internet users in the six largest countries, exceeding that of the population of the US and “presenting an immense business potential for global merchants”.

Single API

“With this deal, PayU successfully creates a winning proposition for global merchants by integrating RDP platforms into the PayU Hub. PayU can now build a best-in-class cross-border product by offering more local alternate payment methods and connectivity.”

“We will now provide our existing global merchants access to Southeast Asia with a single API (application programming interface) integration, thus strengthening our global PayU Hub platform,” said PayU CEO Laurent le Moal in the statement. “Owing to the immense potential that the Southeast Asia market presents, PayU sees a vast opportunity in this region to grow and innovate further. We will continue to look for prospects to reinforce our footprints in this market.”