Visa Inc said on Thursday it agreed to a 1.8 billion euro ($2.2 billion) takeover of European open banking platform Tink, months after it abandoned the acquisition of the startup’s U.S. rival Plaid.
Established in 2012, Sweden-based Tink empowers banks and other financial firms to share and access consumer financial information easily without any problem. It is utilized by over 3,400 banks and different companies, as well as over 250 million clients in Europe.
Visa terminated the $5.3 billion deal with U.S. data sharing platform Plaid in January, following a U.S. government claim pointed toward obstructing the deal on antitrust grounds.
European Union rules on open banking expect banks to grant access to client data by registered third party providers to promote competition.
The rollout of the standards has given ample opportunities to fintechs, like Tink, which use technology to support outsiders and banks to get to customers data.
Some financial technology experts said the Tink acquisition could raise antitrust concerns, like the failed Plaid bargain.
“Europe is a totally different open financial market to the USA,” said Simon Taylor, head of ventures and co-founder at fintech consultancy 11:FS. “However, Tink is perhaps the biggest player, and a considerable lot of the worries that prompted the examination concerning the Plaid-Visa arrangement may apply here.”
The deal is important for Visa’s push to broaden incomes past credit card payments, where it is one of the world’s predominant players. Card companies have been facing expanded pressing factor from regulators on fees, particularly in Europe.
Whenever concluded, the transaction could become another accomplishment for Sweden’s financial technology startup sector which has produced many large companies in recent years.
Buy now pay later company Klarna was valued at $46 billion in its most recent funding round, while Payments startup iZettle was bought by PayPal Holdings Inc for $2.2 billion in 2018.
“With Tink and iZettle, Sweden has now produced two of Europe’s biggest ever fintech M&A exits,” said Josh Chime, general partner at Dawn Capital, a venture capital firm who sponsored the two firms.
