London’s blockchain settlements and payments provider SETL acquired by Turkish fintech Colendi

Backed by Credit Agricole CIB and Deloitte, enterprise-grade blockchain settlements and payments provider SETL has been acquired by Turkish embedded fintech services platform Colendi. Through the acquisition, Colendi gains SETL’s valuable IP and industry expertise as it aims to establish a new public blockchain infrastructure that will be used to host native tokens and smart contracts for Colendi’s current 10+ million users. The financial terms and conditions of the sale remain undisclosed.

Offering a number of embedded fintech services including what the company refers to as ‘Just in time finance’ (BNPL, and instant payment options), as well as investment products including precious metals, FX trading, fractional stocks and, you guessed it crypto assets, Colendi claims to be the fastest-growing firm of its type, not only in Turkey but in the surrounding regions as well.

The company has inked exclusive partnerships with a number of top-tier consumer-facing entities including Turkcell and Migros, and since closing a $38 million Series A funding round in September of last year, at a valuation of $158 million, Colendi has only further scaled operations, building from strength to strength. With the SETL acquisition, the firm now shores up its prowess in the field of cryptocurrencies.

And what better way to position yourself as an industry leader other than developing and deploying your own set of tools and procedures and making them readily available to the 10+ million users you’ve amassed in a short 2 years?

If the reasoning behind the purchase of SETL wasn’t quite clear already, I hope, dear reader, it is by now.

The combined force of the SETL/Colendi enterprise is paving the way for a new public blockchain infrastructure that will be used to host native tokens and smart contracts for the aforementioned users via their Colendi wallet.  

Forward-thinking, Colendi is already making inroads into extending its services into the worlds of gaming, messaging, investment, and a number of additional dApps currently under development within the Colendi ecosystem, and the company states that a native network token offering is imminent.

As is to be expected, the new blockchain will support cross-chain connectivity as well as natively supporting popular formats for NFT’s and other tokens.

When it comes to the privacy and security of this new initiative, SETL’s chief engineer Anthony Culligan explains, “This initiative links the work we do with enterprise blockchains to a robust and secure public blockchain environment.  Many of our clients are looking for a route from internal private blockchains to a public shared environment. This will provide that path."

On the deal, Colendi's Chairman, Ian Hannam, and CEO, Bulent Tekmen jointly commented, "We are delighted to welcome SETL to the Colendi family and look forward to leveraging their formidable blockchain tech for the benefit of our users. We see a future where your financial interactions are embedded in your experience whether you are gaming, shopping, investing, or saving.”