EML acquires open banking brand as it sets sights on European expansion

Brisbane-based EML Payments Limited has acquired Irish fintech Senetenial, including its open banking arm Nuapay.

EML will pay €70m for both brands, as well as an additional earn-out component of up to €40m.

Sentenial processes €45bn every year and is regulated in both the UK and France, while its open banking brand Nuapay connects to over 134m European bank accounts, including 98 per cent and 70 per cent coverage in Italy and Germany respectively and 90 per cent in the UK and France. 

“Nuapay’s mission is to be the best way to pay and get paid. We are proud to have developed a market-leading Account-to-Account and Open Banking payments platform over nearly two decades in business,” said Sean Fitzgerald, founder and CEO of Sentenial.

“The revolution in payments caused by Open Banking and Real-Time Payments is rapidly building momentum globally, and we are hugely excited by this opportunity to move to a global scale as part of EML. From the moment EML approached us, we’ve been impressed by their vision, ambition and growing ecosystem.''

As part of the acquisition, Fitzgerald and Sentenial’s 60 full-time employees across its offices in Ireland, London, Paris, Brussels and Krakow will all become part of the new team at EML.

The combined group will process in excess of A$90bn (€58bn) in Gross Debit Volume, the aggregate amount of transactions made using Sentenial and EML platforms.

“The acquisition of Sentenial will be the next evolution for EML, as we transition into a broader payments business by adding instant account-to-account (Open Banking) payments into our suite of solutions for current and prospective customers,” added EML’s managing director and group CEO, Tom Cregan.

“Sentenial is a European business today, and we will be working to extend its platform to our other regions in the coming 12-18 months,” he went on.

The deal, which is still subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close later on this year.