Axis Bank confirmed it had sold its 8% share in new-generation card-swiping-machine company Mswipe Technologies.
In a regulatory filing, the private sector bank said it sold its 8% stake for Rs 80.94 cr, or Rs 4,249 per share.
Mswipe is one of the new generation, low-cost swipe-machine companies, and offers cheaper rates to merchants. Instead of 1.8%, for example, the company charges only 0.75% for debit card transactions below Rs 2,000 and 1% for those above Rs 2,000.
Besides, the machine is very thin, and is only as big as a small calculator. Instead of a physical print out, the machine sends an SMS to the user’s phone number for receipt.
Axis Bank was one of the early investors in Mswipe, which was founded by Manish Patel in 2011.
Axis Bank is reported to have exited its investment in the company when it went for a funding round and raised Rs 206 cr from venture capitalists that reportedly included Ratan Tata and the University of California.
In 2015, Mswipe had raised Rs 160 crore.
