From B2B to B2C: Inside Zaggle’s Strategic Leap with Rio Money

It’s not every day you see a listed B2B giant make a play for the crowded consumer credit market. But this week, Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services did just that.

In a move that caught industry watchers by surprise, the Hyderabad-based SaaS fintech announced the acquisition of Rivpe Technology—the parent company of Rio Money—in a deal valued at approximately ₹22 Crore ($2.6M). But the purchase price is just the tip of the iceberg. Zaggle has committed an additional ₹75 Crore ($9M) post-acquisition to supercharge the startup's technology and growth.

For founders following the fintech space, this is more than just an M&A headline. It’s a textbook example of a "buy vs. build" strategy executed with precision.

The Deal at a Glance

Why Rio Money?

Founded just two years ago, Rio Money (Rivpe Technology) might seem like a small fish. However, its founders, Riya Bhattacharya (ex-Navi founding team) and Vivek Amarnani, built something Zaggle desperately needed: a ready-to-deploy consumer credit stack on UPI.

While Zaggle dominates the corporate spend management space—think employee expense cards and vendor payments—it lacked a direct line to the everyday consumer. Rio Money bridges that gap. The startup specializes in "credit on UPI," allowing users to access credit lines directly through QR code scans, a behavior that has become ubiquitous in India.

"The acquisition of Rio Money is a strategic cornerstone... Rio brings exceptional capabilities in UPI and consumer credit cards, two of the most transformative payment avenues in India today."
— Raj P Narayanam, Founder & Chairman, Zaggle

The Founder Perspective

For Raj P Narayanam, this is a classic diversification play. Having taken Zaggle public in 2023, the pressure is on to show growth beyond the B2B SaaS verticals. By acquiring Rio, Zaggle buys speed—skipping years of R&D required to build a consumer credit platform from scratch.

For Riya Bhattacharya and the Rio team, the exit represents validation. In a funding winter where many early-stage fintechs are struggling to raise Series A rounds, finding a strategic acquirer with a strong balance sheet (Zaggle reported a 72% YoY net profit jump recently) is a winning outcome.

What This Means for the Market

This deal signals a growing trend of consolidation in Indian Fintech. Established players are looking to acquire specialized startups to fill product gaps rather than building internally.

With the ₹75 Crore war chest Zaggle has promised, expect Rio Money to aggressively expand its user base. The synergy is clear: Zaggle has 3,600+ corporate clients and millions of employee users. Cross-selling Rio’s consumer credit cards to this captive audience could effectively lower customer acquisition costs (CAC) to near zero—the holy grail of fintech.