Financial Software & Systems Pvt Ltd. (FSS), India’s leading payments technology and processing

company closed its INR 350 crore fund raise from Premji Invest, the family investment office of Mr. Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Enterprises.

This funding will be utilized by FSS for fuelling innovations in digital payments for e-commerce and mcommerce businesses, financial inclusion, remittance businesses, expanding its hosted services business and further strengthening its software products/IP portfolio. The funding will also accelerate the company’s aggressive growth plans in global markets.

Avendus Capital was the sole financial advisor to this transaction.

This is the fourth round of funding successfully closed by FSS. The company had earlier raised two rounds of equity infusion from global private equity fund Carlyle and subsequently from NEA and NYLIM Jacob Ballas. The company provided an exit to Carlyle during the third round of funding. The current round with Premji Invest involves a combination of primary funding into FSS and secondary funding through purchase from existing shareholders, with significant portion being primary in nature.

Commenting on this transaction, Mr. Nagaraj V Mylandla, Founder and Managing Director, FSS said,

“FSS, with its in-depth payments domain expertise built over 23 years with proven credentials across payments landscape, is uniquely positioned to become a global payments industry leader. The latest round of funding from Premji Invest, along with the active support of our existing investors, NEA and NYLIM Jacob Ballas, will enable us capitalize on the emerging opportunities in digital payments much faster and consolidate our position as a global leader in payments. In the next 18 to 24 months, the Company plans to go public. The fact that FSS has consistently attracted PE investments over the past 2 decades and this latest investment from Premji Invest will enable us to prepare for the IPO”.

This deal marks the 12th deal closure for Avendus in the payments industry. Avendus’ Digital Media and Technology (DMT) practice has successfully closed 8 deals in the DMT industry since the start of this year and Avendus was amongst the top two financial advisors in India by overall number of deals (as per Mergermarket for Q1-Q3 CY2014).

About FSS

FSS is a payments technology leader. The Company powers the retail payments initiatives of leading banks, financial institutions, processors, merchants, governments and regulatory bodies across the globe. The Company’s end to end payments suite powers retail delivery channels such as ATM, PoS, Cards, Mobile and Internet. Headquartered in Chennai, India, FSS delivers end to end payment products, services and solutions to 100+ global customers. In India, FSS domestic client portfolio of leading banks features majority of public and private sector banks in the country like State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, AXIS Bank, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India to name a few. Internationally, some of the large Banks, FIs, Processors and Prepaid Card issuers are customers of FSS across North America, UK/Europe, ME/Africa and APAC. FSS delivers business value to its clients via a diversified portfolio of software products, hosted payment services and software services built over 23 years of comprehensive experience across payments spectrum. FSSNeT, the hosted payment business of the company is the largest independent processor in the country and provides ATM/ POS switch services, card issuance and management, wholesale payments, corporate payments, ATM managed services, POS services including mobile PoS and micro ATMs, internet payments, mobile banking and payments and financial inclusion services. It also provides multitude of value-added services, back office processing and ATM-related services to banks and financial institutions. Today, FSS powers 6 million transactions per day, powering faster and smarter payment solutions to billions of people across 7000 villages and cities in India. The company also offers a comprehensive portfolio of payments products for banks, retailers and other institutes. The products are designed to address diversified needs across the payment ecosystem and include highly scalable platforms for issuing, acquiring, merchant management, reconciliation and settlement, payment gateway, financial inclusion, social/ mobile banking and device monitoring. The Company’s a comprehensive set of software services includes system integration, offshore development, application and product testing, project management, migration and upgrade, onsite technical support and 24/7 helpdesk support. The services range from managing mature products with several releases into the market, to legacy systems that are at the end of their life cycle. FSS today has a worldwide presence with over 1600 employees.

For more information please visit www.fsstech.com

About Premji Invest

Premji Invest is the family investment office of Mr. Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Enterprises, with a portfolio of US$ 2 billion across public and private equities. The fund invests in growth stage companies across geographies such as India, China and US with a focus on consumer, technology, financial services and healthcare sectors. Portfolio of the fund include market leaders such as FabIndia & Future Lifestyle in Retail, Flipkart & Snapdeal in e-commerce, NSE in Financial Services, Manipal Group & Health Care Global (HCG) in Healthcare.

About Avendus Capital

Avendus Capital is a leading financial services firm which provides customised solutions in the areas of financial advisory, equity capital markets, alternative asset management and wealth management. The firm relies on its extensive track record, in-depth domain understanding and knowledge of the economic and regulatory environment, to offer research based solutions to its clients that include institutional investors, corporations and high net worth individuals/families. In recent years, Avendus Capital has consistently been ranked among the leading corporate finance advisors in India and has emerged as the advisor of choice for cross-border M&A deals, having closed around 40 cross-border transactions in the past 5 years. Avendus PE Investment Advisors manages funds raised from its investors by investing in public markets, while Avendus Wealth Management caters to investment advisory and portfolio management needs of Family offices and Ultra High Networth Individuals / families, spanning all asset classes. Headquartered in Mumbai, the firm has offices in New Delhi and Bangalore. Avendus Capital, Inc (US) and Avendus Capital (UK) Pvt. Ltd. located in New York and London respectively are wholly owned subsidiaries offering M&A and Private Equity syndication services to clients in the respective regions. Avendus Capital, Inc (US) also provides wealth management services to clients in select jurisdictions in USA.

For more information, please visit www.avendus.com