Deutsche Bank hopes to leapfrog competition with first India acquisition

Industry:    2018-05-16

Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest lender by assets, has acquired Mumbai based four year old fintech start up Quantiguous Solutions which will enable it to provide an open banking platform to its corporate clients across the world.

This is the first acquisition for the German lender in India and helps the bank connect its interface directly with the clients without any additional costs to on board new clients or incremental efforts for automation, said Anjali Mohanty, head of global transaction banking for Deutsche in India.

The deal was stitched together in less than five months since the first approach was made by the German lender in early January. This acquisition will give Deutsche access to a unique application programming interface (API) which allows seamless connectivity of clients to the bank.

Quantiguous has worked with Yes BankNSE -0.46 % and RBL Bank in India since starting operations in 2014 and has grown between 15% to 18% annually. In the fiscal year ended March 2018 the firm made around $0.5 million of revenue (Rs 3.5 crore). Deutsche did not say how much its paid for this company.

Nineteen Quantiguous employees including founder CEO Akhilesh Kataria, will join Deutsche to work on a programming interface in all of the German lender’s businesses across the world.

“It gives us an opportunity to expand our solutions across the more than 60 markets Deutsche is present in. We can find solutions using the in house capabilities of Deutsche and also gain a global exposure,” Kataria said.

The API will be enhanced to also be used to retail banking. Mohanty said that it is likely that the new interface will be tested with a corporate client in India before it is introduced globally. “This acquisition will help us leapfrog and get ahead of other banks in finding open banking solutions, accelerating our in house program and providing an easier, faster and seamless solutions to our clients,” Mohanty said.
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