CCI Greenlights slice’s Merger With North East SFB

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Tuesday (March 12) gave its nod to the merger of fintech unicorn slice with North East Small Finance Bank.

“Competition Commission of India (CCI) approves the merger of a financial technology company, Garagepreneurs Internet Private Limited (GIPL) with the North East Small Finance Bank,” said CCI in an order. 

As per the order, the merger will cover slice’s parent GIPL, the NBFC arm of GIPL Quadrillion Finance and the fintech’s another subsidiary Intergalactory Foundry Private Limited (IFPL). From the bank’s end, the proposed transaction will include the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Guwahati-headquartered bank, RGVN (North-East) Microfinance Limited.

With this, all decks have been cleared for slice’s merger with the SFB, barring the filing of the composite scheme of amalgamation (simply the simplification of shareholding) before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and certain related transactions. 

The nod comes more than five months after the fintech unicorn announced its merger with the small finance bank back in October 2023. At the time, the company had said that the transaction would enable it to expand its offerings, strengthen its underwriting tools and streamline customer experience.

Prior to this in March 2023, the Bengaluru-based fintech startup announced the acquisition of a 5% stake in Guwahati-based bank for $3.42 Mn (INR 28 Cr) after months of talks. 

Founded in 2016 by Rajan Bajaj, slice (previously known as Slicepay) operated as a buy now pay later (BNPL) platform till FY22, and offered a credit card-esque prepaid payment instrument (PPI) that came with no annual fees, interest, or late charges. 

After the RBI cracked the whip on fintechs in 2022 and barred NBFCs from offering credit on PPI, slice discontinued the service.The regulatory headwinds forced it to pivot its business model and the company began exploring talks for merger.

As a result, the fintech startup’s parent, GIPL, saw a 60% YoY jump in its consolidated net loss to INR 405.8 Cr in FY23 while operating revenue soared 199% YoY to INR 846.7 Cr in the year under review.

Meanwhile, slice has been rapidly gearing up for the merger in the past few months. In December last year, former Andhra Bank executive Satish Kumar Kalra was appointed as the interim managing director (MD) and CEO of the North East SFB.

The Tiger Global-backed company also closed an INR 75 Cr debt round from Stride Ventures late last year. On the operational front, it also rolled out its unified payments interface (UPI)-first prepaid account for all its users in February this year.