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Gold loan company Muthoot Fincorp has picked up a 54 percent stake in Hyderabad-based fintech startup Paymatrix by buying out existing investors as part of its added focus on digital payments segment.

“We now hold a majority in Paymatrix, having given full exit to many of the existing investors. We’ve acquired 54 percent equity shareholding in the startup through a combination of primary and secondary investments,” Muthoot Pappachan Group chairman Thomas John Muthoot told PTI on Monday, refusing to share the deal value citing confidentiality clause.

“This investment in Paymatrix will help us extend our existing lending business by giving us a competitive edge in terms of expanding our product offerings and make a foray into new markets and new customer segments,” he added.

Paymatrix was set up in 2016 with a vision to streamline property rent payments and rent collections for tenants and landlords.

It was incubated at IIIT-Hyderabad along with Paypal accelerator programme, and had secured early-stage investments from Xseed Venture Partners, IIIT-Hyderabad seed fund, and its foundation, Sucseed Angel Network and Smartcity Dubai.

It started off as a platform for online payment of property rentals, rent deposits, and maintenance payments using credit cards and has since gone on to become one of the largest property rent payment and collection platforms in the country, with a user base of over 82,000 and having processed Rs 200 crore till date, Muthoot said.

In the past two years, Paymatrix diversified its portfolio by enabling payments beyond rental collections into any large ticket recurring expenses like tuition fees, maintenance bills, vendor payments, etc., through credit cards.

The Muthoot Pappachan Group is into gold loans, financial services, automotive retail, realty, hospitality, IT, and alternate energy and sports, employing over 27,000.

Flagship Muthoot Fincorp serving around two million customers in gold loans, retail loans, small business loans, affordable housing, two-wheeler and used-car loans, money transfer, foreign exchange, insurance sales, and wealth management, through its 3,600 branches.