Pine Labs acquires Setu, a fintech infra startup for $70-75 million

23 Jun 2022 , 03:04 PM

Ahead of its intentions to list in the United States, merchant payments and lending platform Pine Labs has acquired fintech infrastructure expert Setu for $70-75 million, the firm announced on June 23. This move will bolster its varied online payments and lending capabilities.

Setu was founded in 2018 by Nikhil Kumar and Sahil Kini, the startup provides API integration for fintech businesses to connect with regulated organizations including banks, NBFCs, and others.

In a statement to the media, the founders of Setu stated that they would continue to be in charge of the business and brand while also operating independently.

Data, payments, investments, and lending are the four kinds of open APIs that Setu offers.

The interface for Account Aggregator (AA) and ambitions for expansion in the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) frameworks make Setu an appealing investment for Pine Labs.

Pine Labs has embraced an omnichannel strategy during the past year and is growing its regional reach.

Point of sale (PoS) devices for offline payments are the company's primary mode of payment, but the company also entered the internet payment market when it introduced its payment gateway platform Plural in October 2021.

In April 2021, Pine Labs bought Fave and joined the consumer payments market. Pine Labs is also spreading its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) offering in Southeast Asia.

Plural, the firm's payment gateway, is anticipated to make the offline-to-online transfer for Pine Labs' merchant base easier and would aid the company in keeping its merchants for online payments as the adoption of merchant digital payments in India continues to increase.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised concerns about the Equitas Small Finance Bank fixed deposit product that Setu had powered last year, which was ultimately removed from Google Pay.

Pine Labs has so far raised more than $1.2 billion, and its current market worth is between $5 and 5.5 billion. The company raised $220 million from the largest lender in India, State Bank of India (SBI), Alpha Wave Global, and British investment company Vitruvian Partners in just 2022.

In addition to acquiring Qfix Infocomm, a startup in online payments, in 2022, the business also purchased majority ownership in payment solution provider Mosambee at a price of $100 million.