January 25 (SeeNews) - US-based financial services company J.P. Morgan said on Tuesday that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a stake of some 49% in Greek cloud-based payments fintech company Viva Wallet Holdings Software Development.
“J.P. Morgan’s strategic investment in Viva Wallet signifies our confidence in their technology and team who already offer a holistic omnichannel merchant acquiring capability across Europe and better serve SMBs,” Max Neukirchen, Global Head of Payments & Commerce Solutions at J.P. Morgan, said in a press release.
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The deal is subject to regulatory approvals. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
"This strategic investment from J.P. Morgan’s Payments business will enable us to complete the build out of our vision to deliver fully localised payments and transactions services to small and medium businesses (SMBs) across Europe," Haris Karonis, CEO and co-founder of Viva Wallet, said.
Takis Georgakopoulos, global head of J.P. Morgan Payments, noted that the European payments landscape is fragmented yet large in terms of opportunity, with more than 17 million merchants ready to implement scalable payments solutions. "This is a big focus area for added growth for J.P. Morgan Payments in the future," he said.
Athens-headquartered Viva Wallet focuses on serving SMBs in 23 European countries, including Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania. The company has a proprietary, cloud-based payments platform that is able to offer a broad array of value-added services to merchants including Tap To device technology, merchant cash advance, bill pay, expense management and virtual debit card issuance.