Brands
Pluxee rocks the cradle with Proeves buy to boost workplace benefits
MUMBAI: Sometimes growth is about scale. Sometimes it is about care. Pluxee has chosen the latter, completing its acquisition of Proeves on 20 December 2025 and adding corporate childcare to its expanding employee benefits portfolio in India.
The deal, first announced in September 2025, received all necessary regulatory approvals and marks Pluxee’s entry into the fast-growing corporate childcare benefits segment. With over 3.5 million consumers in India, the group is now widening its focus from traditional employee engagement solutions to benefits that directly address work–life balance and gender equality.
Founded as a digital-first childcare benefits platform, Proeves enables working parents to identify suitable caregivers through a comprehensive technology-led marketplace. The company currently works with more than 100 corporates and partners with over 7,000 childcare centres across the country, positioning it as a key player in an increasingly regulated and employer-driven space.
For Pluxee, the acquisition also has a compliance edge. As India’s labour codes evolve, including statutory childcare and crèche requirements, employers are under pressure to offer structured solutions. By integrating Proeves, Pluxee aims to help organisations meet these obligations while offering benefits that resonate with a modern, diverse workforce.
The move signals a broader shift in how employee benefits are being redefined in India away from perks alone and towards support systems that acknowledge life beyond the workplace. In Pluxee’s case, strengthening its benefits stack now begins not at the office door, but closer to home.
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
