Mastercard and Takas.lk enter into strategic alliance agreement

From left: Takas CTO Kalinga Athulathmudali, Takas CEO Lahiru Pathmalal, Mastercard Country Manager – Sri Lanka and Maldives R. B. Santosh Kumar and Mastercard Head – Digital Payments, Sri Lanka and Maldives Sandun Hapugoda 

Mastercard, a technology company in the global payments industry having a global network  that connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories recently entered into a strategic alliance agreement with Takas.lk – one of the pioneers in the ecommerce industry in Sri Lanka. 

The partnership will enhance the consumer experience at Takas.lk and will enable takas to explore payments as a solution in the longer term as a B2B business model (Through Takas eCommerce Services or TES). 

Takas.lk a pioneer in the ecommerce industry, with many firsts such as Cash on Deliver (CoD) being introduced to Sri Lankan consumer, Takas was also the first to introduce fully automated easy payment schemes to the Sri Lankan market. 

Technology has been the driver in the takas success story, takas was the first to tokenise credit cards in Sri Lanka (So that consumers can save their credit cards for simplified check-out) and to launch a Progressive Web Application (PWA) so consumers can shop easier on their mobile phones. 

With this new alliance, Takas will leverage Mastercard technology assets to provide a convenient and secure user experience in digital payments, such as the use of Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS), tokenisation services and other API based services. As Takas uses the technologies, Mastercard will provide technology solutions to enhance the shopping experience. 

Commenting on the new alliance, Mastercard Country Manager – Sri Lanka and Maldives R. B. Santosh Kumar stated: “We are excited about this partnership with Takas.lk to enhance consumer experiences in Sri Lanka, one of our key markets in the region. In our continuous support to the country’s ongoing efforts for adoption of cashless payments, we seek to simplify access to digital payments for businesses and consumers through such fast, secure, convenient and cost-effective solutions.” 

Takas CEO and Co-founder Lahiru Pathmalal stated: “Delighted to sign this agreement with Mastercard, a leader in payment solutions in the world. It’s a great testimony to the amazing work that takas has done in payments under the leadership of Kalinga Athulathmudali (CTO) and our technology team. We are super excited to leverage off Mastercard se we can add more features to both our B2C consumer experience and to B2B solutions we provide.”