Accel-backed fintech firm Uni Cards acquires peer-to-peer NBFC

Uni Cards has acquired peer-to-peer lending platform OHMY Technologies (known as OMLP2P), according to a person aware of the development. OML holds an NBFC-P2P license from the Reserve Bank of India.

According to MCA records, Uni Cards founders Nitin Gupta, Laxmikant Vyas and Prateek Jindal have joined the board of OMLP2P as directors on 7 January.

LinkedIn profiles of both OMLP2P founders Surendra Jalan and Pramod Kumar Akhramka show that they served the company until January 2023.

The acquisition cost is not yet known, but is believed to be in the region of £3-4 million. For FY22, OMLP2P had 33 lakh in revenue from operations; and losses for the period were ₹ 1 crore.

In addition, it is also not clear whether the agreement has received RBI approval yet.

Last year in September, Mint wrote a detailed story on how the ambitious plans of the Uni were scuttled after the RBI circular – which prevented companies from loading PPIs like prepaid cards or mobile wallets using lines of credit issued by non-bank financial companies ( NBFCs) and banks. Overnight, the circular killed the business model of Uni and many others in the market.

Mint first wrote that buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) company Uni — which initially worked with RBL Bank and SBM Bank India to roll out prepaid cards and topped up the cards with lines of credit from around four-five NBFC partners — applied for its own NBFC license in December 2021.

However, the process is still on hold, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A person aware of the development had then informed Mint that the majority of credit lines Uni provided to its customers came through P2P NBFC Liquiloans.

Following digital lending guidelines from the RBI, it has become difficult for unregulated fintech lending platforms to operate. Several government officials believe that in the current scenario, owning an NBFC is the only way to go if a fintech wants to build and scale a lending business.

Early last year before June, when the only fintech business in the city was about offering credit lines on PPI, Uni acquired PPI licensee Weizmann Impex Service Enterprise in a deal “expected to be in the range of INR 30-40 crore,” Mint then had quoted two people aware of the development.

The PPI acquisition is of no use to Uni now; and the company is currently planning to launch credit cards.

To date, Uni has raised $88.7 million in equity capital from Accel Partners, Lightspeed, General Catalyst, Sparkle Fund and others. During FY22, the fintech firm reported a loss of ₹139.5 crore; while operating income was 13.7 crore.

Confirming the acquisition of OMLP2P, Nitin Gupta said, “This acquisition has been in play long before new guidelines or for that matter long before June 2022. It is an important part of our strategy.” He did not comment on the cost of the acquisition.