Roamware, which till now was known for its roaming solutions for the wireless service providers, is making a radical shift and aiming to diversify further into the VAS domain rather than restricting itself to roaming services landscape.

The firm which claims to enjoy 60 % market share in the roaming solutions segment has acquired Mobile Financial Service (MFS) player Macalla Software Ltd. for an undisclosed amount.

Macalla says that its solutions encompassing areas such as credit transfer, international remittance, person-to-person transactions, top-up and bill payment are deployed by banks as well as operators across the world.

Roamware aims to target the low income, unbanked communities across the world.

“We are clearly the market leader in roaming with over 60 per cent global market share and 382 global network operators as customers,” says Bobby Srinivasan, CEO of Roamware.  “The move into mobile banking and m-commerce is a natural extension for us as it leverages our customer relationships, business partnerships and technology innovation - banking for the un-banked is a massive market opportunity for Roamware. The Macalla acquisition brings us domain expertise and a proven platform that will enable us to take a leadership position in this emerging category.”

Niall O’Cleirigh, co-founder and CEO of Macalla adds, “Macalla has been a leading innovator enabling mobile money transactions across banks, remittance service providers and mobile operators.  By joining forces with Roamware, we can benefit from its global reach and relationships within the mobile community to build a true global ecosystem of mobile financial services.”

Macalla will now operate under the Roamware brand and will continue to be based out of Dublin.