London-based payments platform Paysafe announced Sunday it has signed an agreement to acquire German fintech viafintech in the coming months in an all-cash transaction. With the acquisition, Paysafe will gain access to the the DACH(Austria, Germany and Switzerland) region’s largest independent payment structure’s consumer base.
Currently, viafintech operates under the brands Barzaheln/viacash and viacash.
The tech operates as an integration with banking apps to offer a “mobile ATM” which enables consumers to make deposits or withdraw cash from their digital bank accounts at a nearby retail store using a barcode.
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Germany, the platform integrates with massive European retail chains across Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Spain like REWE, Penny, dm and Rossman. According to the release, the company operates via a network of 20,000 points of sale in the e-commerce industry.
As part of the deal, the viafintech team, including viafintech’s managing directors, Sebastian Seifert, Achim Bönsch and Andreas Veller, will become part of Paysafe’s expanding eCash and open banking solutions’ team which is headed up by Paysafe eCash CEO, Udo Müller.
This marks Paysafe’s third acquisition in less than a month. Most recently, the company snagged Latin America payments platform SafetyPay and Peruvian alternative payments (APM) platform PagoEfectivo. According to the release, Paysafe plans to expand its eCash business and open banking solutions in the over 60 countries in now touches.
“We are very excited to welcome a star player like viafintech into the Paysafe family,” said Udo Müller, CEO of Paysafe eCash and Open Banking, in the release. “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.”
Müller’s not wrong, Germany has exploded in terms of venture capitalism fueling the fintech space. Most notably, the country has a bevy of seed-stage investments in fintech, with Crunchbase reporting over 30% of fintech are in this stage.
Trade Republic—a commission free investment app—took first place in the country terms of deal size, raising a $900 million Series C. The Berlin-based company has raised a total of $995 million, counting Sequoia Capital, Accel, TCV and Thrive Capital as investors. The only startup that has managed to out raise Trade Republic is executive management platform Celonis with a $1 billion Series D.