Pine Labs acquires leading API infrastructure start-up Setu

Noida-based merchant commerce platform Pine Labs has said today that it is acquiring Bengaluru-based API infrastructure start-up Setu. This is Pine Labs' third acquisition announcement for the year.

With their APIs being utilised by start-ups, retail businesses, banks, insurance companies, and loan organisations, among other industry verticals, Setu has witnessed considerable demand for their products throughout the years. Setu's current and future use cases span a variety of digital ecosystems, including Aadhaar eSign, BBPS bill payment, payment collection integration through WhatsApp, FASTag payment collection, and more.

Commenting on the development, B Amrish Rau, CEO of Pine Labs, said, “Setu will make an incredible addition to the Pine Labs platform for a few reasons. Embedded financial services and open banking are going to be the way forward and the embedded finance market value is expected to exceed US $138 bn by 2026 as APIs are intensifying the competitive fintech landscape. Setu helps their customers, merchants, and brands build beautiful experiences, so consumers can engage with payments and financial services on their terms.” Describing the Bengaluru-based startup as a ‘pioneer’ in supporting innovation in India, he added, “we are more than delighted to welcome the co-founders Nikhil and Sahil and their young and vibrant team to the Pine Labs family.”

Co-founder and Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited, Nandan Nilekani, commented on the acquisition by remarking, "I have seen both Sahil and Nikhil at close quarters earlier, at Aadhaar and UPI. The kind of infra Setu is building will be very important for India in the years to come and I am happy that they are relentlessly moving towards that goal and this partnership with Pine Labs will help them to accelerate. My best wishes to both Amrish and the team at Setu!"

Sahil Kini, Co-founder and CEO at Setu, while expressing his excitement about the acquisition, said, “We are excited with this investment coming from Pine Labs. At Setu, we are building some amazing products and enabling a future of consent-driven access to financial data. We believe democratization 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. 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.”

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