Uni Cards, a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) fintech startup, has reportedly acquired OHMY Technologies (OMLP2P), a peer-to-peer lending platform licensed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as an NBFC-P2P platform. The deal, estimated to be in the INR 3-4 Cr range, is not known to have received RBI nod yet. Uni Cards’ founders Nitin Gupta, Laxmikant Vyas, and Prateek Jindal have joined the board of OMLP2P as directors. Last year, RBI barred non-bank prepaid payment instrument (PPIs) issuers from loading PPIs with credit lines, which affected Uni Cards’ business model. Uni Cards raised INR 50 Cr through debt financing from Stride Ventures last year and secured $70 Mn in its Series A funding round in December 2021 at a valuation of $350 Mn. The digital lending market in India is expected to reach $1.3 Tn by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 22% between 2022 and 2030, according to report. The Indian government has been cracking down on digital lending apps that charge exorbitant interest rates and employ aggressive debt collection tactics. In January 2022, the government banned 232 online betting and loan apps, many of which were Chinese-owned. Later, some of the homegrown players’ websites and apps were unblocked, but the government continues to scrutinize the sector and has issued new regulations to protect borrowers’ interests. Tech giant Google has also tightened its policy on such apps, and starting May 31, 2023, the apps will have to comply with more stringent guidelines to function and exist on the Play Store.