SETL, the enterprise blockchain specialist, has been acquired by Istanbul-based fintech Colendi.
Following its US$38 million funding round in Q3 2021, Colendi believes that its purchase of SETL will reinforce its presence in the corporate blockchain solutions market and will assist its release of a new public blockchain infrastructure that it intends will be used to host tokens and smart contracts for Colendi’s current customer base of more than 10 million users.
Colendi proposes that this network will bridge the gap between public and private blockchain, enabling regulated institutions to take a node on the blockchain and to participate selectively in transactions on public blockchain while maintaining their own permissioned ledger.
This network will be integrated into Colendi’s core wallet and extended to Colendi’s full user base. It expects to release a native network token relatively soon, prior to a planned launch of the network in 2023.
The financial details of the transaction have not been released at this stage.
SETL’s chief engineer Anthony Culligan says: “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.”
SETL CEO Philippe Morel says: “We will keep our prominent role in RegFi, bringing Market Infra, asset management and payment solutions to regulated financial institutions.
“RegFi still represents 99 per cent of workwide financial flows. But as a leading-edge financial technology firm, SETL could not ignore DeFI. With Colendi, we are preparing the RegFI and DeFi convergence. We will offer to our RegFi clients the opportunity to connect in a secure manner to a public blockchain ecosystem.”
Colendi chairman Ian Hannam and CEO Bulent Tekmen say: “We look forward to leveraging [SETL’s] 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.”
