Slice has acquired a 5 stake in the Indian bank North East Small Finance in what judges say is a crucial step in the unicorn fintech incipiency’s trip amid mounting challenges from the central bank that has stumbled numerous youthful enterprises. The Bengaluru-headquartered incipiency invested $3.42 million for the 5 stake in the Guwahati-headquartered small finance bank in September, a nonsupervisory form showed.
The investment comes at a time when the Reserve Bank of India has cropped the bodies of numerous fintech startups operating in cards and advancing orders by calling strict compliance with strict new guidelines. It’s unclear how a stake in a bank, actually a rare and presumably significant corner by a incipiency, would be incontinently salutary to Slice, a $1.55 billion incipiency that counts Tiger Global, Insight mates, Blume Ventures and Axis Bank among its backers. Slice sped up plans to explore implicit investments in banks ever since an RBI directive, in June 2022, rendered a major blow to its very business model. slice, which was innovated in 2016 by Rajan Bajaj, offers credit results largely targeted at the youngish demographic in the age range of 18 and 29.
In some respite, the fintech unicorn eventually entered a PPI licence from the RBI in December last time. The investment also underscores the fintech unicorn’s forces to drift over the non supervisory quagmire that has surfaced in the once many times. Despite retaining an NBFC licence for close to four times now, slice will also be eligible to convert itself into a bank, via a fresh licence, post operating as an NBFC for five times. Still, RBI has so far been veritably picky when it comes to granting banking and indeed NBFC licences. It flagged a slew of enterprises when it comes to fintech players applying for similar licences, ranging from power of fintech startups to the origin of capital flowing into these realities. As a result, numerous fintech players have looked at acquiring stakes in lower banks or partnering with big banks to operate seamlessly.