Colendi, the embedded Fintech services platform in Turkey and surrounding regions, announced its acquisition of London-based blockchain settlements and payments provider SETL.
Launched in 2015, SETL claims to be one of the leading enterprises blockchain companies “known for its high-profile work with selected Central Banks and T1 Financial Institutions.”
In December SETL announced a collaboration with SWIFT “in an interoperability Proof of Concept and tested its 1m TPS blockchain to service a Regulated Liability Network (RLN) with AWS.”
After closing a $38 million Series A funding round last September, Colendi has “continued to build from strength to strength, and with the SETL acquisition and the services that will be offered under the Colendi umbrella, will position the company as a major player in the corporate blockchain solutions market.”
As part of this combination the SETL/Colendi enterprise is “preparing a new public blockchain infrastructure that will be used to host native tokens and smart contracts for Colendi’s current 10+ million users.”
This architecture will be “integrated into the core Colendi wallet and available to all Colendi users as the company extends its services into investment, messaging, gaming, and many other dApps currently under development within the Colendi ecosystem.”
A native network token offering is “expected shortly, supporting a 2023 Launch.”
Interoperable with SETL’s 1 million TPS interbank offering, the new decentralized network is expected “to be EVM compatible, able to support cross-chain connectivity, and to natively support popular formats for NFT’s and other tokens.”
Crucially, the network will “bridge the gap between public and private blockchains by allowing regulated institutions to deploy nodes which can selectively participate in public transactions whilst maintaining their own permissioned ledger.”
Anthony Culligan, SETL’s Chief Engineer, noted:
“This initiative links the work we do with enterprise blockchains to a robust and secure public blockchain environment. Many of our RegFi clients are looking for a route from internal private blockchains to a public shared environment. This will provide that path.”
Colendi‘s Chairman, Ian Hannam, and CEO, Bulent Tekmen said:
“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.”
Sir David Walker, SETL Chairman, added:
“Colendi is exactly the right partner for us. Their phenomenal growth shows that they understand and embrace the changes that are sweeping financial services. We bring the right technology at the right time to create a global decentralised network which can execute our joint vision.”
SETL CEO Philippe Morel remarked:
“We will of course keep our prominent role in RegFi, bringing Market Infra, Asset Management and Payments solutions to regulated Financial Institutions. RegFi still represents 99% of worldwide financial flows! But as a leading-edge financial technology firm, SETL could not ignore DeFi. With Colendi, we are preparing the RegFi/DeFi convergence. And we will offer to our RegFi clients the opportunity to connect in a secure manner to a public blockchain ecosystem.”
Founded in 2020 by Turkish entrepreneur Bulent Tekmen, Mihriban Tekmen and UK financier Ian Hannam, currently “services over 10 million wallets with integrated payments, credit, and investment services.”
In total, Colendi’s exclusive partnerships with leading consumer-facing enterprises, including Turkcell and Migros, will “enable it to ultimately access to over 50 million unique users extending to the international markets.”
The recent launches of Colendi’s asset management and credit platforms “introduce a commensurate requirement for differentiated tokenization platform both to create new financial products and to expand the funding alternatives available to support the growth of its credit business.”