India’s Pine Labs acquires API fintech start-up Setu
Delhi-based merchant commerce platform Pine Labs announced that it is acquiring Bengaluru-based API start-up Setu.
Pine Labs buys Setu
Founded in 2018 by Sahil Kini and Nikhil Kumar, Setu provides low-cost Application Programming Interface (API) infrastructure to businesses launching onboarding, payments, deposits, lending, and data services “in a matter of days, not months”.
Setu claims its APIs are currently being used across diverse industry verticals including start-ups, retail enterprises, banks, insurance and lending companies.
“We believe democratisation of technology will yield better results when it comes to making financial products accessible to all and therefore have our APIs open for the developer community,” says Kini, Setu’s co-founder.
“Pine Labs’ network of merchants and issuers coupled with our API integration prowess will help achieve great results in personal finance management, monitoring loans to predict default rates, credit underwriting, and several other areas.”
While terms of the deal were not disclosed by the firms, according to the news reports, the acquisition came at a price tag of between $70-75 million for Pine Labs.
Backed by the likes of Sequoia, Temasek, Mastercard and PayPal, Pine Labs serves large, mid-sized and small merchants across India and Southeast Asia, using cloud-based software to deliver payments.
Pine Labs last raised $50 million in March this year, hot on the heels of a $150 million investment in February valuing the company at more than $5 billion.
This acquisition is also Pine Labs’ third in 2022, having picked up a majority stake in payments solution provider Mosambee and Mumbai-based payments firm Qfix earlier this year.
