DMI finance has acquired the buy now pay later (BNPL) platform ZestMoney, Business Standard reported. The investment firm that is baking the fintech announced the completion of the deal on Wednesday night, although it did not share the details of the deal.  

“ZestMoney has been a pioneering provider of checkout finance in India. We are always looking for best-in-class solutions to enhance both the engagement with - and the experience of - our customer and merchant base,” said Shivashish Chatterjee, co-founder and joint managing director of DMI. “We have been partnered with ZestMoney for over 8 years in various capacities. We firmly believe that this acquisition will be an important step in our journey to provide digital financial inclusion at scale across India.” 

Bengaluru-based ZestMoney announced the shutting down of operations in December last year. Founded in 2015 by Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma, and Ashish Anantharaman (who resigned from the company), the company operates an EMI and pay-later network. 

The fintech disburses funds directly to the merchant from its lending partner, enabling customers to repay the lender in small installments over time instead of paying the full purchase amount upfront. 

The company was already struggling to operate, but the situation worsened after the founding member failed in acquisition talks with fintech major PhonePe. 

According to various media reports, non-banking companies DMI Finance and Aditya Birla Finance were in talks to acquire the company. 

The fintech has a customer base of 1.7 crore, disbursing loans of around Rs 400 crore every month. It worked with 27 different lenders and partnered with 10 thousand online brands and 75 thousand offline stores. 

The founders, as per the reports, have launched a new start-up named SwiffyLabs. This B2B fintech company will focus on building infrastructure for banks and financial institutions. According to the reports Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, is backing this venture.