LINE Pay, a startup formed as a subsidiary of messaging leader LINE, announced its acquisition of Japanese payment company WebPay earlier today. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
WebPay was a seemingly healthy startup that had nearly two years behind it, along with a number of backers. It had received JPY 110 million ($927,000 USD) in a round led by CyberAgent Ventures last year and was largely expected by many to stay independent. Instead, it has apparently chosen to exit the payment business via acquisition.
Ecommerce is starting to boom, so the acquisition does make plenty of sense for LINE Pay, which lets over 170 million monthly active LINE users make payments for affiliated services or at affiliated shops regardless of their carrier or OS (aside from the requirement that they be on iOS and Android for now). Users can register their credit cards and purchase a variety of paid content such as LINE stickers for both LINE and LINE family apps through the LINE Store (https://store.line.me). Of course, real world payments are also a big deal.
The WebPay team will likely be moving over to the LINE Pay team once the acquisition closes according to TechinAsia.