Mumbai: Making their maiden investment in India, Calpian, a U.S based public company engaged in the electronic payments processing industry, invests $29.7 million in cash and stock in Money-on-Mobile, an electronic prepaid payment instrument for mobile phones.

Harold Montgomery, Chairman and CEO, Calpian, said that they believe MoM is well-positioned to take advantage of the promising mobile payment channel in India. Calpian’s management team has been associated with the electronic payment processing business for the last twenty-five years in the U.S., and they are excited to participate in the Indian market by partnering MoM.

Launched in 2010 for the B2B market in India, Money-on-Mobile (MoM) had received RBI’s permission to offer the semi-closed m-wallet for the consumer market nationally. It offers mobile phone users the flexibility and convenience to top-up their talk time, DTH account and pay their utility bills using their mobile phones. MoM currently has a network of over 55,000 retailer touch points pan-India and a presence in over 200 cities. It has 2.7 million a user base.

Shashank M. Joshi, Managing Director, MoM, said that they are delighted to welcome Calpian as a new investor and a strong partner in their efforts to provide mobile payment services to every banked and unbanked mobile subscriber in India.

Joshi has over eighteen years of professional experience in the areas of IT and ITES, Outsourcing, Transition and Management consulting. He has cross-border global experience of more than six years in Simplifying Payments. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.

MoM’s platform is available on SMS and the consumer does not require a smartphone. Their service operates independent of the consumer’s mobile operator or bank, and hence any mobile subscriber can avail themselves of its services.