Banking support from PayPal and HDFC Mintoak acquired DigilEdge in a $3.5 million deal, marking its first acquisition in the digital currency space of India's central bank.
Mintoak, an Indian e-commerce startup that promotes merchant payments, acquired Digiledge in a deal worth around $3.5 million, and Reuters, the first acquisition in India's CBDC region, learned by citing sources that are close to the issue.
DigiLedge, which specializes in CBDC and bill payments, allows Mintoak's partner banks (HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, SBI) to provide payment solutions with E-Rupee, a CBDC format in India. With the acquisition, Mintoak CEO Raman Khanduja said the company “hopes that merchant acquirers will grow more easily and make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to access digital tools and financial services.”
India's central bank, Reserve Bank of India launched its e-rupee pilot in December 2022. Initially, only banks were available, but the scope expanded to payment companies in April 2023.
E-Rupee adoption is slowing, with the RBI reporting 1 million retail transactions by late June 2024, reaching milestones only after local banks introduced incentives and partially paying employee salaries using state-issued digital currency.
The RBI previously urged banks to increase transactions to at least 1 million per day by the second half of 2023. However, this push has stopped, raising questions about the future of digital currency initiatives due to the gap between incentived metrics and actual user recruitment.
