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Indian BNPL firm ZestMoney shuts down

Indian buy now, pay later firm ZestMoney is shutting down after failing to find a buyer, according to TechCrunch.

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Indian BNPL firm ZestMoney shuts down

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The company - which had a $450 million valuation at its last funding round - has been scrambling for backers since a planned acquisition by Walmart-backed mobile payments giant PhonePe fell through earlier this year.

PhonePe ditched the deal over due diligence concerns, walking away from a deal pegged at between $200 million and $300 million despite the fact it would have secured the company a long-coveted non-banking finance company licence.

Weeks after the deal collapsed, ZestMoney CEO Lizzie Chapman, CFO and COO Priya Sharma and CTO Ashish Anantharaman all resigned.

Having failed to find a buyer, the new leadership told ZestMoney's 150 employees about the decision to shut up shop this week, according to TechCrunch.

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Comments: (1)

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

Very sad. Credit is extremely underserved in India. However, recovery laws are extremely pro-Borrower. In China etc., lending fintechs brick phones, leak naked selfies and use other technology-powered features to improve recovery rates and stay in business. However, such things are taboo in India. So, it's back to good old feet on street and telephone follow up for recovery. Traditional banks know those measures have limited effectiveness, which is why they have stayed away from lending to the vast majority of citizens. If fintechs have to follow the same approach, how can they succeed?

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