Banking giant J.P Morgan has entered an agreement with PayTech firm Viva Wallet to acquire an ownership stake of approximately 49%, subject to regulatory approvals.
Established in 2000, Athens-headquartered Viva Wallet has developed a cloud-based payments platform that offers a wide range of value-added services to merchants including tap to device technology, bill pay, expense management, merchant cash advance, virtual debit card issuance, gift cards, loyalty and cash disbursement.
According to J.P Morgan, the strategic investment in Viva Wallet is a ‘natural fit’ for its Payments business, which combines corporate treasury services, trade finance, card and merchant services capabilities to provide an integrated payments experience to customers.
J.P Morgan Payments global head Takis Georgakopoulos said, “We are very excited to make a strategic investment in Viva Wallet to support their vision to empower new growth and payments innovation targeted at European small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and middle market merchant services clients.
“The European payments landscape is fragmented yet large in terms of opportunity, with more than 17 million merchants ready to implement scalable payments solutions and this is a big focus area for added growth for J.P. Morgan Payments in the future.”
Viva Wallet CEO and co-founder Haris Karonis added, “Viva Wallet’s mission is to change the way businesses pay and get paid in Europe with cutting edge technology, unprecedented agility and in-depth knowledge of the European payments landscape. “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 SMBs across Europe.”
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