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Nuvei Corp. appears ready to escalate its cross-border payments prowess with a $2.75 billion acquisition of Payoneer Inc., known for its cross-border capability. In related news, American Express Co. wants to acquire TheFork, an online restaurant reservation and management platform in Europe.
Montreal-based Nuvei says the deal will help it offer businesses “a more complete platform to accept payments, send funds, issue cards, manage treasury and [foreign exchange] needs, and access embedded financial services—at scale.”
Expanding its cross-border payments business is high on Nuvei’s wish list. It says that as commerce becomes more complex, businesses need the systems to support the full transaction lifecycle. “This transaction directly addresses that need by combining Nuvei’s leading payment acceptance capabilities with Payoneer’s cross-border payouts, multi-currency accounts and banking network, along with same-day and real-time settlement in more than 150 markets,” Nuvei says. Payoneer, founded in 2005, is based in New York City.
Nuvei, which went private in 2024 when Advent International acquired it, could benefit in many ways from the deal, suggests Christopher Kennedy, an analyst at William Blair & Co., a Chicago-based investment banking and financial services firm, in a research note.
“We see multiple potential synergies between Nuvei/Payoneer, as the deal would bring together two significant cross-border commerce franchises. Over the years, Nuvei has expanded capabilities beyond acquiring to support capabilities that have strong overlap with Payoneer, such as pay-in/out, bank transfers, banking services, issuing, currency management, and reconciliation,” Kennedy says.
Both Nuvei’s and Payoneer’s boards of directors have approved the deal, though it is not expected to close until mid-2027. Kennedy says it faces a lengthy regulatory approval process. Nuvei would pay $7.40 per share in cash for Payoneer.
Nuvei says the combined company would generate approximately $3 billion in annual revenue and process more than $500 billion in annual payment volume for more than 2.4 million clients.
In related news, card and acquiring powerhouse American Express has proposed to buy TheFork from its current owner, Tripadvisor Inc., for $700 million in an all-cash transaction.
Needham, Mass.-based Tripadvisor said in February it would explore alternatives for TheFork, which was founded in 2007 and acquired in 2014 by Tripadvisor.
AmEx says TheFork has more than 50,000 European restaurants in its network in 11 countries. AmEx acquired Resy, a U.S.-focused restaurant-reservation service, in 2019 and Tock, a similar service, in 2024.
The expectation is that AmEx will build on its membership services.
“Over time, the proposed acquisition would help us enrich our differentiated Membership Model by offering Card Members more ways to discover, book, and access great restaurants, while helping our partners reach more diners and grow their businesses,” Rafa Marquez, AmEx president of international card services, says in a statement. “TheFork has built a successful platform across Europe with strong relationships throughout the restaurant industry that would complement our existing capabilities.”
If the deal goes through, AmEx says Resy, Tock, and TheFork would expand its bookable venues to 75,000.
