Ride hailing service and mobile payments platform Grab has acquired iKaaz, an Indian payments startup, with an eye on accelerating feature development and partner integration of GrabPay on its way to ‘becoming the region’s universal payments platform.

iKaaz, founded in 2012, offers a mobile payments platform for enterprises and merchants in both developed and emerging markets. Its technology includes NFC, QR-code, audio-based payments, bill payments, online payments, and P2P. The iKaaz team will join Grab R&D centre in Bangalore.

“iKaaz’s technology has served merchants and partners across different industries and in different settings, from parking lots and airports to retail stores and hotels,” said Jason Thompson, managing director of GrabPay Southeast Asia. This rich set of offline payments features offers the flexibility needed to tailor our GrabPay platform to each country and partner in Southeast Asia. We look forward to leveraging the expertise of iKaaz’s leadership team and build GrabPay into SEA’s universal payments platform together.”