As you may know, Plural is the online payments platform launched by Pine Labs in October 2021. We recently announced something special — the team at Setu, which has consistently been pushing the bar in the world of financial products and literally “bridging” technology gaps in this space, is now a part of the Pine Labs family! With this merger, we will be able to combine Plural and Setu synergies to be a technology powerhouse of financial products that businesses can leverage. For us, it truly signifies the meaning of plurality in terms of our offering, both to businesses and consumers.
We launched Plural with a single aim to build the best payments infrastructure of the future! However, while we solve for complex payments problems and business workflows, the world of financial products beyond payments needs to be reimagined too.
Imagine this: You’re looking to open a new business, but you’re hassled with requirements such as:
1. Opening a bank account
2. Manage working capital
3. Build payment collection flows
4. Optimize payouts to vendors & employees
5. Reconcile payments (this problem gets magnified if you are an omnichannel business)
…and other aspects such as optimizing customer journeys, driving customer engagement opportunities, ensuring continuous revenue sources, contingency plans, etc.
The convenience of all this and more is exactly what the Setu & Plural synergies bring to your business!
Companies in financial services such as lending companies, NBFCs, broking firms etc., need partners to help create customer solutions, too, for example:
1. Simplify customer onboarding
2. Enable income verification
3. Offer financial products at their point of sale
4. Improve customer lifetime value/customer engagement through cross-selling other financial products
5. Boost customer engagement
What if, for your business needs, there was one answer? One single provider, so you’re free to focus solely on running your business. Or, better still — what if a non-financial company could provide financial solutions?
Introducing Embedded Finance. Embedded finance is simply, integrating financial services and tools into a traditionally non-financial platform, offering control and convenience. Cashless payments to Uber, Amazon’s 1-click checkout and Tesla offering auto insurance at point-of-sale are use cases of Embedded Finance.
Let’s look at another example — Reliance Digital, an e-commerce store, selling consumer technology products (like headphones, iPhones and MacBook Pros). The brand offers Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and EMI options to its customers without them having to leave the platform. EMI and BNPL options make the product affordable to the customer who can buy on short-term credit while for the ecommerce store, they are able to increase the Average Order Value (AOV). Win-win.
Financial product offerings which used to be the cornerstone of banks and NBFCs can now be broken up and offered within a familiar interface!
Here are a few more use-cases of how Setu and Plural products can help non-financial companies & NBFCs.
So, this year, we aim to offer complete financial solutions to businesses with a bouquet of services across Plural and Setu, simplified in single lines of code and API integrations. We’re reimaging payments & this is how we see it going forward — a single dashboard!
We’re thrilled to be on this journey with Setu as we revolutionize how we serve businesses! Embedded finance will play a pivotal role in paving the path for a new wave of innovation & technology. Businesses that embrace this will thrive & those that don’t will face challenging times. Here’s to building the infrastructure of the future — onward & upward!
Write to us at pgsupport@pinelabs.com to get started!
Plural by Pine Labs has received an in-principle authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payment Aggregator.
Setu has received an in-principle authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as an Account Aggregator.
Amrita Konaiagari is a Marketing Manager at Plural by Pine Labs and Editor of the Plural blog. She has over 10 years of marketing experience across Media & Tech industries and holds a Master’s degree in Communication and Journalism. She has a passion for home décor and is most definitely a dog person.
