Jasper makes Rs.22-crore capital infusion in FreeCharge

Jasper Infotech, which owns and operates digital payments platform FreeCharge, has made a Rs 22-crore capital infusion in the company, its third such investment over the past five months.

According to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (ROC), and accessed by Tofler, a corporate research and monitoring platform, FreeCharge Payment Technologies, at its Board meeting held on April 28, allotted 2.2-crore equity shares at a price of Rs 10 per share to Jasper Infotech.

FreeCharge -which was acquired by Jasper in 2015 in a cash-and-stock deal estimated at $400-450 million in what was then the largest acquisition in the Indian startup M&A landscape -is currently up for sale, with rival mobile wallet operator Paytm being the frontrunner to acquire it.

The Noida-headquartered, Alibaba Group-backed company has signed a non-exclusive term sheet to acquire its smaller rival, in what is expected to be an all-cash deal.

For Snapdeal, selling its payments arm will provide much-needed relief to the troubled online marketplace.

The proposed stock transaction, now pegged at $750 million, compared to $1billion earlier, has been progressing but the two parties have not signed a term sheet yet, said one source familiar with the matter.

Sources revealed, "The (FreeCharge) deal could be closer to $45 million."