JP Morgan acquires payments fintech to rival Stripe and Block

Renovite is the latest in a string of fintech acquisitions for JP Morgan under CEO Jamie Dimon.

In an effort to stave off its fintech rivals, JP Morgan has acquired payments company Renovite.

Through the acquisition, the cloud-native payments fintech will become part of JP Morgan Payments, combining corporate treasury services, trade finance and card and merchant services capabilities.

According to CNBC, which first reported the news, the bank said that acquiring the firm will speed up its ability to roll out new offerings to merchants.

“This business is the natural home for our people and technology,” Renovite founder and CEO Viren Rana said.

“We believe that the contemplated transaction will help us to realise our joint vision to deliver world-class payments capabilities globally through next-generation infrastructure for J.P. Morgan Payments clients.” 

Although JP Morgan is the world’s largest provider of merchant services by transaction volume, its fintech competitors, including Stripe and Block, are fast growing and approaching the top 10 acquirers in terms of volume.

JP Mogan’s acquisition of Renovite is far from the first fintech deal made under CEO Jamie Dimon to keep competitive.

The bank has acquired at least five startups since the end of 2020, including Global Shares and Nutmeg.

After merchant acquiring revenue slowed last year, the bank is looking to build a “next generation merchant acquiring platform” with its latest addition.

Although overall revenues increased from $9bn in 2017 to $10bn in 2021, the lack of growth in e-commerce market share was covered by the success of its treasury services, global head of payments Takis Georgakopoulos told investors in May.

This was in part because it fell behind in some e-commerce segments and had fewer services on offer than some of its fintech rivals, Georgakopoulos explained.

“Renovite’s cloud-native merchant acquiring capabilities are already helping us better serve our clients,” JP Morgan global head of payments technology Mike Blandina said.

“As the Renovite platform integrates with JP Morgan Payments, merchant acquiring clients will be able to accept more methods of payments around the globe to help grow their business.”