India, March 4 -- PayPal and HDFC Bank-backed Indian startup Mintoak, a merchant payment services provider, has bought Digiledge, which specialises in Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and bill payments services, making it India's first e-rupee related deal.

This deal worth around $3.5 million marks the first major acquisition in the nascent CBDC space, according to a report by news agency Reuters.

In December 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had started a pilot for the CBDC, also known as the e-rupee; Basically a digital alternative to physical currency.

In April last year, it then expanded the scope of transactions to payment firms from originally having it limited to just banks.

Cred and MobiKwik then became the first finte...