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Fresh off a pair of acquisitions in the Latin American market, Paysafe Group Holdings Ltd. over the weekend announced a major move into the European Continent with a deal to acquire viafintech, a neobank and payments provider based in Berlin, in an all-cash transaction. Terms were not announced.
The deal hands Paysafe, based in the United Kingdom but with major operations in the U.S. market, a substantial player in banking services, payments, and open banking. Ten-year-old viafintech has developed a network of 20,000 point-of-sale locations with more than 20 merchants companies, according to information released Sunday. The company also will allow Paysafe to cross-sell viafintech’s banking and payments services to merchants outside Germany.
“We believe the team are perfectly positioned to take advantage of the shift away from the legacy banking system in Germany and beyond as more and more challenger banks enter the market and consumers opt to use mobile-based solutions for banking and payments,” said Udo Müller, chief executive of Paysafe eCash and open banking, in a statement.
Paysafe has proven to be acquisitive in recent months. Last week, the company announced it has agreed to pay $441 million to acquire Miami-based SafetyPay, a 15-year-old provider of digital payments for cash-paying users in 19 countries, chiefly in Latin America and Europe. Earlier, it had laid out an estimated $110 million for PagoEfectivo, a Peruvian payments processor. Both companies are active in online gaming, a key market for Paysafe.
Paysafe reported last week that it generated $384.3 million in revenue for the quarter ended June 30, up 13% year-over-year, on $32.3 billion in processing volume, up 41%.
The deal for viafintech is expected to close “over the coming months,” Paysafe says. Until then, the companies will operate independently. Viafintech’s majority shareholder, Japan-based Glory Global Solutions Ltd., will offer paysafecard, Paysafe’s payment service for e-commerce transactions. In turn, Paysafe will offer its merchants Glory’s cash-handling and vending-machine services.
