In a cash and equity deal for USD 70-USD 100 million, IPO-bound digital payment and financial services provider Pine Labs in in talks to acquire API-based infrastructure company Setu.

“The due-diligence is underway and Setu’s board has also been apprised of the offer from Pine Labs. Currently, they (Pine Labs) have the exclusivity window for about a month,” a person briefed on the matter.

“The few large acquisitions by Pine Labs have only been around diversifying into new markets and launching new segments. However, with regulatory changes like tokenisation, the account aggregator framework and the personal data protection bill, it is being forced to think of the technology stack and the consent layer, which may be hard to build later,” said a person who was aware of the discussions.

For users to register, approve, reject and manage data consent requests Setu partners with licensed account aggregators and provides customisable screens. To offer loyalty-based and ‘buy-now-pay-later’ solutions Last year, the company was looking to consolidate its acquisitions of gift card provider Qwikcilver and Fave on its consumer platform.

Pine Labs will get access to Setu’s Account Aggregator consent framework and technology, if the acquisition comes through, helping it improves market time for its planned financial services launch.

With the acquisition of Singapore-based loyalty payments startup Fave, last year, the merchant-focussed fintech took its first steps towards consumer offerings. To help new-age direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands accept digital and credit-linked payments it also launched a payment gateway, Plural.