First acquisition for Yapily as it scoops up German rival FinAPI

Open banking firm Yapily says it’s set to become the largest open banking payments provider in Europe processing over $39.5bn in annual payments, following an acquisition that will double its customer base.

The target is German open banking rival FinAPI, currently owned by credit bureau Schufa, which has over 50 large enterprise clients including Deutsche Kreditbank, ING and Swiss Life.

Yapily says it has reached an agreement with Schufa to acquire the bureau’s 75 per cent stake in FinAPI, in a deal which should complete in the second half of 2022 subject to regulatory approval.

Financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

“We feel like we have now reached a level of maturity for which it makes sense to accelerate our growth,” Stefano Vaccino,Yapily’s founder and CEO told AltFi.

“That's what led us to pursue the acquisitive strategy and look for, let's say, a partner to integrate into the Yapily family to create a new, independent European leader in the space.”

Once complete the deal will see Yapily enter new markets including Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, while increasing its presence in the UK and Germany.

Vaccino explained that FinAPI’s team of around 45 staff would be joining Yapily, and helping the company grow towards its goal of 300 employees by the end of 2022.

Strategically the deal is about giving Yapily the scale to become the default payments partner as the open banking sector becomes ever-more competitive, Vaccino says.

“Clearly companies like Stripe and Apple have been monitoring the space for the last few years, and now that they feel they can enter they will have the choice either to buy someone in the space or to build it themselves,” the CEO added.

“We are strategically positioned to be the best choice of partner for all the companies entering the space.”

While Yapily has focused on payments, the addition of FinAPI will also broaden its own offering to include ID, age verification, KYC and the kind of digital account checking used for credit scoring.

For now, FinAPI will remain an independent company until the deal completes, at which time Yapily says both the leadership of FinAPI and Schufa will “continue to play a role in the future of the unified entity”.