ZestMoney

The acquisition comes more than a month after Bengaluru-based ZestMoney, shut down amid an unsuccessful attempt to revive its business under new management and regulatory uncertainty

The goal of their new venture is to help financial institutions launch new-age products and leverage AI and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)

The management told the employees that they had to take such a tough decision as the business has not been able to grow, according to the sources.

ZestMoney's founders have resigned, several weeks after fintech giant PhonePe decided to halt its proposed acquisition of the buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform

In April, ZestMoney laid off 100 employees, or about 20 per cent of its workforce

ZestMoney is said to be in talks with some of its existing investors to raise separate equity capital, the report said

PhonePe in talks with BNPL firm to hire some staff left after acquisition talks fail

ZestMoney founders held a town hall on March 30 and informed employees about layoffs across depts, say sources; not known yet how many would be asked to go

Lapses in due diligence, valuation disagreements, funding winter, tough regulatory environment, fintech slowdown being cited as reasons

The main reasons the deal fell out were lapses in due diligence, disagreement over valuation, sustainability of the business and the platform's shareholding structure

This will be the biggest Esop buyback in tech industry. Flipkart owns over 80% stake in PhonePe and is looking to exit the company. Walmart owns 10% in the Bengaluru-based fintech firm

Deal expected to be closed in two-four weeks, says source

Most of these players saw transactions on their platforms rise on account of increased spends on categories like apparel, electronics and grocery

The shift towards pay later solutions is a global phenomenon and represents young digital consumers looking for transparency, honesty and no hidden charges in financial products

Australian buy-now-pay-later firm Zip Co Ltd said it would invest $50 million to acquire a minority interest in Indian peer, ZestMoney, as part of its plans to tap new growth markets and add investors

The Bengaluru-based startup expects to cross an annual run rate of over $1 billion in disbursal run rate in less than 18 months

ZestMoney said its technology platform provides easy access to consumer loans to millions of Indian households, which currently have no access to credit cards or any other formal financing options

ZestMoney, in collaboration with Xiaomi, had launched Mi Finance last year through which customers can buy Xiaomi products via a cardless EMI