Visa Acquires Tink in $2 Billion Deal; Meniga Backs New PFM Offering from Länsförsäkringar

Eighteen months after the U.S. Justice Department blocked Visa’s attempt to acquire Plaid, the company is back at the counter with a similarly ambitious acquisition: the purchase of European open banking platform Tink for $2.1. billion (€ 1.8 billion).

“Visa is committed to doing all we can to foster innovation and empower consumers in support of Europe’s open banking goals,” Visa CEO and Chairman Al Kelly said. “By bringing together Visa’s  network of networks and Tink’s open banking capabilities we will deliver increased value to European consumers and businesses with tools to make their financial lives more simple, reliable and secure.” 

Tink will retain both its brand and its current leadership team, and will remain headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. The company is integrated with more than 3,400 banks and financial institutions, enabling millions of bank customers across Europe to benefit from aggregated financial data and smart financial services.

“Joining Visa, we will be able to move faster and reach further than ever before,” Tink co-founder and CEO Daniel Kjellén said. “Visa is the perfect partner for the next stage of Tink’s journey, and we are incredibly excited about what this will bring to our employees, customers and  for the future of financial services.

Another alum from Europe that made fintech headlines late in the week was Meniga. The company, which demoed its Carbon Insight solution at FinovateEurope Digital earlier this year, has teamed up with Länsförsäkringar, one of Sweden’s largest financial institutions, to help the firm launch its new personal finance management solution. Specifically, Länsförsäkringar will use Meniga’s data management platform to enable the new offering to provide customers with access to real-time spending data.

“We are extremely excited about joining forces with Länsförsäkringar,” Meniga co-founder and CEO Georg Ludviksson said. “Partnering with such a reputable bank will no doubt prove instrumental in further cementing our position as the go-to digital banking solutions provider in the Nordics. Having worked assiduously with Länsförsäkringar to create an outstanding and first-class personal finance management experience for their customers, we are also very pleased to have been able to assist them during a time when so many people are in need of support and looking to take control of their finances.”

Be sure to check out our interview with Pablo Viguera, co-founder and co-CEO of Open Finance innovator – and “Plaid of Latin America” – Belvo.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

• Singapore-based fractional share trading and investing platform GoTrade raised $7 million in seed funding.
• PayRemit, a payment gateway based in the Philippines, launched a marketplace dedicated to overseas Filipino workers.
• The fintech behind South Korean super app Toss, Viva Republica, raised $410 million in new funding to earn a valuation of $7.4 billion.

Sub-Saharan Africa

• Disrupt Africa profiled Kenyan fintech startup Kwara.
• Nigerian investment startup Chaka secured the country’s first digital stock trading license.
• South Africa’s Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWC) unveiled the first cohort for its regulatory sandbox.

Central and Eastern Europe

• In partnership with the Software Group, Allianz Bank Bulgaria launches new loan application and credit risk management solution, CrediQuest.
• The German B2C savings market just got bigger with news of the merger between Raisin and Deposit Solutions announced this week.
• Tinkoff unveiled a new investment program to help technology startups.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Egypt looks poised to experience a wave of finech investment in the wake of new laws passed governing the industry in the country.
• Dubai-based Buy Now Pay Later firm tabby secured $50 million in debt financing, one of the largest debt facilities for a fintech in the MENA region.
• Executive Magazine looked at the challenges of “attracting capital to fintech in Lebanon.“

Central and Southern Asia

• Pakistan’s Abhi raised $2 million in funding for its Shariah-compliant earned wages early access solution.
• Finflux, an alternative lender based in India, launched its BNPL-in-a-box solution.
• KTrade, “the Robinhood of Pakistan,” secured $4.5 million in funding for its stock trading app.

Latin America and the Caribbean

• BNAmericas looked at the convergence of fintech and agtech in Brazil.
• Entrepreneur.com featured Mexico in its review of fintech startup environments in Latin America.
• Nearshore Americas highlighted where the biggest “talent opportunities” were in Latin American fintech.

Photo by Shvets Anna from Pexels