NEC to acquire Swiss fintech company Avaloq for $2.2bn

NEC acquisition of Avaloq : NEC Corporation, a Japanese IT and electronics company, has agreed to acquire Avaloq Group, a Swiss financial software company, for CHF 2.05 billion ($2.27 billion).

Avaloq is a provider of digital banking solutions, core banking software, and wealth management technology.

The Swiss fintech company is claimed to have more than 150 banks and wealth managers across 30 countries.

It offers cloud computing solutions for banks and wealth managers through Software as a Service (SaaS) and Business Process as a Service (BPaaS).

In recent years, Avaloq has been working with technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain among others with fintech startups as part of capitalizing on new service requirements emerging through the implementation of open banking, especially in Europe.

Juerg Hunziker – CEO of Avaloq, commenting on NEC acquisition of Avaloq, said: “The whole Group Executive Board at Avaloq is committed to driving forward our growth strategy and we are very glad to have a strong partner on our side who supports our long-term vision and offers us continuity, stability and an exciting future of accelerated growth in new markets.

“With NEC, Avaloq found a perfect new home to continue our success story of serving our clients with solutions that make their lives simpler in an ever more complex world.”

NEC acquisition of Avaloq. Photo courtesy of Sergey Vladimirov from RU/Wikipedia.org.

Avaloq’s digital finance software and domain knowledge are expected to enable NEC to foray into the financial software field besides strengthening its business in the digital government field.

Commenting on NEC acquisition of Avaloq, Takashi Niino – President and CEO of NEC said: “NEC will be placing great importance on building long-term relationships with Avaloq and its customers, and aims to create new solutions that combine Avaloq’s software with NEC’s cutting-edge technologies, such as its brand of biometric authentication solutions, “Bio-Idiom,” the company’s AI technology brand, “NEC the WISE,” and its innovative blockchain technologies.

“NEC will also promote global sales expansion of Avaloq’s software by taking advantage of NEC Group sales channels, including KMD, a leading a leading European software and IT services provider that NEC acquired in February 2019.”

NEC acquisition of Avaloq is likely to be closed by April 2021, subject to the confirmation of the required procedures and approvals for each organization.