Mastercard (MA) Invests in Instamojo, Boosts India Presence
Mastercard Incorporated MA recently purchased an equity stake in the India-based digital platform Instamojo in a bid to offer enhanced digital solutions to millions of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and gig workers across the country. Notably, the investment amount has been kept under wraps.
The solutions intend to ease the work process of merchants in establishing an e-commerce business and empowering them with improved digital payment acceptance capabilities. This, in turn, is expected to help the businesses in reaching out to a wider array of customers through digital means.
The latest investment can be deemed as a time opportune one considering the growing inclination of people toward adopting digital methods — a trend that is likely to continue in the post-pandemic era. This has necessitated most companies to work intensively on developing enhanced digital capabilities and address the diversified needs of their customers.
Through constant collaborations and advanced technological offerings, Mastercard has been striving to bring more individuals and organizations under the ambit of a growing digital economy. By 2025, the company aims to include one billion people as well as 50 million micro and small businesses within the digital economy.
Moreover, the recent move highlights two notable endeavors of Mastercard:
Efforts to Benefit MSMEs and Gig Workers
The latest collaboration of Mastercard seems to be in sync with its continued efforts to digitally accelerate growth of MSMEs and gig workers, both of which play an integral role in economic development of India.
On one hand, MSMEs form significant part of the nation’s total industries, and drive industrialization across rural and backward areas. On the other hand, the gig economy gained prominence with emergence of technology platforms in India and pandemic-induced job cuts resulting in people looking for new job opportunities. With promising growth prospects, the gig economy holds potential to provide up to 90 million jobs, per a report published by Boston Consulting Group ("BCG") in alliance with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation ("MSDF").
The latest investment made by Mastercard will help merchants in seamlessly operating and growing their business prospects. Clearly, Instamojo seems to be the apt partner for complementing Mastercard’s endeavor since the former equips small and micro merchants with in-built payments and shipping capabilities, marketing, logistics and credit tools.
Strengthening Digital Footprint Across India Through Tie-Ups
The recent move highlights Mastercard’s focus on partnerships, which are aimed at enhancing technologies and capitalizing on the current prospects in the digital payments space of India. Some notable partnerships in the past include those with RBL Bank, Razorpay and many more, which have bolstered its reach across the nation.
There have been a number of factors that have spurred the country’s e-commerce market growth. These include inclination of people toward online shopping, launch of advanced technologies, elevated internet usage and increased smartphone shipments to India that resulted in higher smartphone usage. Also, several initiatives unveiled by the Indian Government have been contributing to the widespread adoption of digital means across the nation.
Per India Brand Equity Foundation, the e-commerce market of India is anticipated to witness a CAGR of 27% over the 2019-2024 period.
Other companies rapidly expanding its digital foothold across the Indian market are Visa Inc. V, PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL and American Express Company AXP.
Zacks Rank & Price Performance
Shares of Mastercard, which carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), have gained 28.4% in a year compared with the industry’s growth of 16.9%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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