• The European Payments Initiative (EPI) acquired two payments companies– Currence-owned payment solution iDEAL and payment solutions provider Payconiq.
• EPI will leverage the new acquisitions to build a unified payment solution for Europe. 
• The unified payment scheme will begin by offering P2P payments by the end of 2023 across France and Germany.

Payments solutions initiative European Payments Initiative (EPI) announced it has acquired two payments companies and has simultaneously unveiled plans to launch an instant payments solution for Europe.

EPI is purchasing Currence-owned payment solution iDEAL and payment solutions provider Payconiq International (PQI) for undisclosed amounts. The three companies are joining forces to organize EPI’s unified payment solution for Europe. 

“EPI will leverage the strong operational experience, know-how and local market knowledge of these companies,” said EPI CEO Martina Weimert. “We are developing a new, scalable platform to address the modern and evolving payment needs of European consumers and merchants in the best possible way, with efficient, state-of-the-art technology.”

Based in the Netherlands, iDEAL is the region’s major payment scheme. In fact, iDEAL’s payment scheme operator, Currence, counts all major Dutch banks as members. In the Netherlands, 55% of online transactions use iDEAL to facilitate payments. iDEAL was first launched in 2005 and was revamped 15 years later in 2020 to accommodate for the growth of ecommerce transactions and updated consumer expectations.

Founded in 2014, PQI offers a mobile payment platform that can be used in-store, online, and for peer-to-peer money transfers. With headquarters in Amsterdam, the company operates in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg.

Both iDEAL and PQI will help build the EPI digital wallet solution that will offer instant, account-to-account payments under a single brand for users in all European countries. The unified payment scheme will begin by offering P2P payments by the end of 2023 across France and Germany. In the future, EPI will also offer person-to-professional (P2Pro) payments followed by ecommerce and point-of-sale payments. The scheme will support one-off payments, subscriptions, installments, payments upon delivery, and reservations. Over time, EPI will add in more services such as buy now, pay later, digital identity features, and merchant loyalty and rewards. 

The scheme has a diverse set of shareholders, including BFCM, BNP Paribas, BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, DSGV, ING, KBC, La Banque Postale, Nexi, Société Générale, and Worldline. Also worth noting are the newest members. Belfius and DZ Bank joined in 2022, and today, ABN Amro and Rabobank are joining as well.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

• Acorns is acquiring U.K.-based kids financial wellness tool GoHenry.
• Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.
• The deal is expected to facilitate Acorns’ international expansion and will build its presence in the youth market.

Automated savings and investing app Acorns announced today it acquired kids money management app GoHenry. Financial terms of the deal, which also includes GoHenry’s European arm Pixpay, were not disclosed.

The benefits of today’s acquisition are multi-faceted. GoHenry; which operates across the U.K., Italy, France, and Spain; will help California-based Acorns initiate its international expansion. The deal will also broaden Acorns’ offerings to include financial wellness and education and will boost the two companies’ combined subscriber number to almost six million.

What’s more, GoHenry’s customer base– which consists of six-to-eighteen-year-olds– brings a younger set of users to the Acorn brand. This is expected to bring more users to Acorns Early, a product that Acorns launched in 2020 to offer friends and families a way to invest in a child’s future.

“All kids around the world deserve access to responsible money management tools and financial education,” said Acorns CEO Noah Kerner. “GoHenry’s mission driven approach is perfectly aligned with Acorns, which we expect will help us accelerate our roadmap and deliver financial wellness to the whole family through all of life’s stages.”

GoHenry was founded in 2012 to help kids learn how to save, invest, and spend responsibly. The company offers a parent-controlled debit card and tandem mobile app that helps kids track their allowance, spending, budgets, and savings accounts. The company launched in the U.S. in 2018 and expanded to Italy, France, and Spain after acquiring PixPay last year. Prior to today’s acquisition, GoHenry had raised $121 million from Edison Partners, Revaia, Citi Ventures, Muse Capital, Nexi, and more.

“Since we started on our mission to make every kid smart with money ten years ago, we have helped millions of young people do exactly that and this new relationship with Acorns will enable us to reach many millions more,” said GoHenry Co-Founder Louise Hill.

In the U.S., GoHenry will operate as GoHenry by Acorns. GoHenry and PixPay will operate under their own brand names in the U.K. and Europe. “It’s business as usual for our team and customers in the U.K. and Europe (under Pixpay) with the added opportunities and global reach that this new strategic alignment will bring,” added Hill.

Also founded in 2012, Acorns helps users round up their purchases and automatically invest their spare change. The company has raised $507 million, including its $300 million Series F round received in 2022 after cancelling its previously planned SPAC merger.

• Mangopay acquired Whenthen for an undisclosed amount.
• The acquisition comes four months after Mangopay bought fraud detection and prevention company Nethone.
• The two acquisitions are facilitating the launch of Mangopay’s five new products, including Fraud, FX, Orchestration, and Integration; and two new solutions, including Rental Marketplaces and Retail Marketplaces.

Payment technology company Mangopay announced it has acquired payments orchestration startup WhenThen, and has already merged the Ireland-based company’s technology into its own. Financial terms of the deal are undisclosed.

Under the agreement, WhenThen’s employees and products are now operating under the Mangopay brand. WhenThen Co-founder Kirk Donohoe has been brought on to Mangopay’s team to serve as Chief Product Officer.

WhenThen was founded in 2021 to help merchants integrate, test, build, and orchestrate payment experiences through its no-code editor. The company offers a range of payment solutions, including Checkout, Tokenization, Fraud, and PaymentOps.

Mangopay offers a modular approach to e-wallet, payments, and multi-currency payout technology; as well as solutions for C2C, B2C, B2B, and crowdfunding marketplaces. With WhenThen’s technology integrated into its own tools, Mangopay customers will be able to build and configure payment flows such as smart routing, increase local conversion rates, add new payment methods at checkout, store and access customer card data, and leverage payment insights via an operations dashboard.

“Acquiring WhenThen enables Mangopay to rapidly accelerate its payment capabilities whilst providing the best payment experiences in the market,” said Mangopay CEO Romain Mazeries. “It represents a strategic asset for our growth plans, following the acquisition of Nethone in 2022 that strengthened our fraud capabilities.”

Today’s announcement marks Mangopay’s second acquisition. The company bought fraud detection and prevention company Nethone in November of last year. The two purchases have already helped Mangopay broaden its offerings. The company is planning to launch five new products, including Fraud, FX, Orchestration, and Integration; and two new solutions, including Rental Marketplaces and Retail Marketplaces.

Mangopay was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Luxembourg. The company counts Vinted, LeBonCoin, Chrono24, and Wallapop among its clients.

Photo by Keira Burton

• Fraud prevention fintech SEON has acquired anti-money laundering (AML) due diligence software company Complytron in a deal today.
• SEON is leveraging Complytron’s expertise to launch a new AML API, which will help companies comply with the European Union’s Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (6AMLD).
• Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Two Hungary-based fintechs have combined this week. Fraud prevention company SEON acquired due diligence software company Complytron for an undisclosed amount.

Complytron was founded in 2019 after the founders received Google DNI funding for Source Code Leak, a project that used digital fingerprinting software to form connections between seemingly unrelated companies. The group found a commercial use for the software in helping firms comply with AML requirements. The company has received a total of $275k (€257k) funding from a Seed round in 2020.

SEON is leveraging the purchase to launch its new anti-money laundering (AML) API, which incorporates Complytron’s AML expertise. The new API aims to help clients comply with the European Union’s Sixth Anti Money Laundering Directive (6AMLD) by enabling them to check customer names against politically exposed persons, relatives and close associates, and crimes and sanctions lists.

“Our goal at SEON has always been to deliver the best products to our customers with maximum efficiency,” said SEON CEO Tamas Kadar. “Rather than building an AML solution from the ground up, it made perfect sense for us to integrate Complytron’s proprietary algorithms and worldwide databases – as well as the expertise of its talented team.”

The new API offers continuous monitoring that makes it easy for users find and block suspicious customers, add them to monitoring lists, and export the data for Suspicious Activity Reports. The AML API is currently available for all SEON clients, including those using the free version, which the company released last year.

In combining its flagship fraud prevention tools with the new AML API, SEON aims to help companies reduce information silos, run more thorough onboarding checks, and centralize customer data. The company is calling the integration a “crucial first step” in the process of creating a complete risk management toolkit.

Since it was founded in 2017, SEON has raised a total of $108 million. Earlier this year, the company partnered with Bulgaria-based tbi bank, which will deploy SEON’s fraud detection tools.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko