March 8 (SeeNews) - Albanian software firm Dev.al said it has acquired a majority stake in local electronic payments specialist Rubicon as part of efforts to expand into the financial services sector.
Documents published with the country’s trade register show that Dev.al has finalised the acquisition of a 56.17% stake at Rubicon in early February, increasing its shares from the 15.52% it previously held, with a transaction valued at 131 million leks ($1.38 million/1.26 million euro).
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The purchase enables Dev.al to enter the fintech sector through Rubicon’s platform Pago, and incorporate services such as the issue of debit cards, card-based point of sale (POS) installation and card-based e-commerce (vPOS) into its portfolio, Dev.al said in a press release on Thursday.
Dev.al is disbursing the payment in instalments over a three-year period, starting in January 2024.
Rubicon was established in 2020 in Tirana, with co-controlling shareholders based in Albania and Germany, according to the country’s business register. In 2022, it received a licence by Mastercard to issue payment cards, Rubicon has said.
Dev.al was established in 2010, engaging in software development, system architecture, development, maintenance, programming, testing, communication system design, security system development, migration systems, and overall IT system improvement and management, according to the business register.
(1 euro = 104 Albanian leks)