SlicePay

Blume Ventures-backed digital payment platform for college students SlicePay has acquired Trustio, a New Delhi-based peer-to-peer lending company, in an all equity deal.

The acquisition will help SlicePay expand its team and enhance its product capability, Rajan Bajaj, co-founder and chief executive of the payments startup told Techcircle.

Trustio is an invite-only alumni network that offers students and recent graduates a platform for borrowing and lending. The platform acts as a financial security net for users, where they can track their investments and see who is a part of their network.

Trustio was founded by engineering graduates Pranay Bharadwaj, Satya Prakash and Pratham Sehgal in May last year.

As part of the acquisition, Bharadwaj, the chief executive of Trustio, and a number of employees from the firm’s seven-member team, will join SlicePay at Bangalore. The other two co-founders have decided to work on their personal projects.

Trustio is backed by Axilor Ventures and Zostel chief executive Dharamveer Singh Chouhan.

“We decided to join the SlicePay team as we had a very similar philosophy focused on cost effective distribution and data-driven risk management that is a must-have for this business,” Bharadwaj said.

SlicePay is a micro-lending platform for students to purchase products on credit without collateral. College students can avail of everyday products and services by making flexible monthly payments. The company has partnered with major online e-commerce platforms including Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal and PayTM where students can use the SlicePay credit line to purchase products.

The startup was founded by Bajaj, an…