Bhavik Koladiya-Led VC Firm Finix Partners Acquires Fintech Startup Slash

Former BharatPe co-founder Bhavik Koladiya-led venture capital firm Finix Partners has reportedly acquired fintech startup Slash.

All stakeholders of Slash, including founders and investors, have exited the startup, while Finix Partners has retained the IP, trademark, and other company assets, Entrackr reported citing sources.

The entire workforce of Slash either left or was let go in the previous few weeks, the report said.

“…We plan to run it independently as a part of Finix Partners portfolio companies. The Slash App is being revamped and will be relaunched soon for the new users,” Koladiya was quoted as saying by the publication.

Inc42 could not verify the report independently and has reached out to Koladiya seeking details of the deal. The article will be updated on receiving a response.

Founded by Laman Ansari and Rahul Mahajan, Slash was owned by Greenbacks Technologies Private Limited. The startup was backed by Elevation Capital, Tanmay Bhat, and others. Slash provides payment solutions to social ecommerce merchants by creating a platform-agnostic and integrated way for small brands and online creators to monetise their products, skills and services.

Its CEO Ansari reportedly moved on from the startup in April and is currently working at UK-based Anthropic.

As per the publication, Slash was looking for merger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities for the past six months and had held talks with many large fintech firms. Amid the ongoing funding winter, the startup was facing a cash crunch and couldn’t raise its series A round.

Koladiya is currently the CEO of SaaS startup OTPless, which was incorporated in December 2021. The startup is also part of the portfolio of his family office Finix Partners.

Koladiya is the former MD and cofounder of BharatPe, the fintech startup that has been at the centre of some of the biggest controversies in the Indian startup ecosystem over the last year or so. He left BharatPe in July 2022 and became the CEO of OTPLess in January this year. 

As per an Inc42 report, the fintech sector witnessed the second-highest number of acquisitions in the first half of 2023, with 13 M&As registered between January 1 and June 27, 2023. However, despite the severe funding crunch, the fintech sector also received the highest amount of funding of $2.1 Bn in the first half, down 37% year-on-year.