PayPal-Backed Startup Flexes Muscle With Strategic E-Rupee Acquisition

Indian startup Mintoak, backed by global payments giant PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL has acquired fintech player Digiledge, marking the first acquisition in the country’s developing central bank digital currency space.

What Happened: Mintoak, a provider of merchant payment services, has finalized the purchase of Digiledge, a firm specializing in CBDC and bill payment services, for around $3.5 million. Reuters reported Monday.

The Reserve Bank of India, India’s central bank, launched a pilot for the e-rupee, a digital counterpart to physical currency, in Dec. 2022. Some of the biggest fintech players in the country, including Alphabet Inc. GOOG-backed Google Pay, Walmart Inc. WMT-backed PhonePe, and AmazonPay have expressed interest in joining the pilot project.

This acquisition comes at a time when the global stance on CBDCs is divided. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has indicated that the U.S. central bank won’t develop a central bank digital currency under his watch during his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.