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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Acquiring the buy now pay later fintech startup would enable the Walmart-owned firm to offer lending services, a business that Paytm is keen on growing.
Editor's note: PhonePe’s imminent purchase of ZestMoney is a big step towards the Walmart-owned firm's ambitions to be a financial super app. A deal hasn’t yet been finalized but media reports from last week suggest that there is an agreement in place between the companies and the acquisition is likely to be made official in the next 2-3 weeks. Successful big-ticket consolidations within India’s fintech sector are rare. The complexities of the businesses, disagreements over valuations between private investors and a wide array of compliances involved mean that high-profile deals in fintech fail more often than not. The collapse of the PayU-BillDesk merger, CRED’s decision to back out of the Smallcase buyout and Paytm’s failure to secure regulatory approval to complete the Raheja QBE acquisition are some recent examples that come to mind. Even PhonePe’s deal to acquire IndusOS for $60 million in 2021 barely scraped through. Nonetheless, let’s for a moment imagine that all goes well and PhonePe’s deal to acquire ZestMoney does indeed come to fruition. In such a case, this acquisition has the potential to be one of the …
The central bank’s shift to a 100% collateral requirement threatens to erode leverage, reduce volumes and force a consolidation across prop desks.
High returns, RBI-regulated comfort, and easy withdrawals drew investors in. Now, with repayments drying up, the fintech platform, its NBFC partner, and the regulator are pointing fingers—leaving customers to chase their own money.
An NBFC licence and a string of approvals give the fintech firm a fresh shot at relevance. But patchy execution, intense competition and a stagnant core cast doubt on whether it can capitalize on the opportunity.
