Visa has signed a deal worth €1.8 billion to acquire Tink, a Swedish open banking platform provider that enables fintechs, financial organizations, and merchants in Europe in developing personalized financial management tools, products, and services.

By means of a single API, Tink helps its customers in accessing smart financial services such as financial data, risk insights, and account verification.

The open banking platform of the Swedish fintech company is claimed to be integrated with 3,400 plus financial institutions and banks. After the acquisition, Tink will retain its Stockholm headquarters and also its brand and existing management team.

Tink, which was founded in 2012, serves more than 300 fintech companies and banks in 18 European markets via its offices in 13 countries and 400 employees.

Commenting on Visa acquisition of Tink, Daniel Kjellén – CEO and Co-founder of Tink said: “For the past ten years we have worked relentlessly to build Tink into a leading open banking platform in Europe, and we are incredibly proud of what the whole team at Tink has created together.

“We have built something incredible and at the same time we have only scratched the surface. Joining Visa, we will be able to move faster and reach further than ever before. Visa is the perfect partner for the next stage of Tink’s journey, and we are incredibly excited about what this will bring to our employees, customers and for the future of financial services.”

Visa said that Tink will allow it to combine its own infrastructure and continued investment in fraud prevention, resilience, and cybersecurity with the latter’s APIs, technology, and also customer relationships in order to fast track the adoption of open banking in Europe.

Furthermore, the addition of the Swedish fintech company will allow Visa to help businesses irrespective of their size to access an enhanced and more customized range of tools for operating securely and digitally.

Al Kelly – CEO and Chairman of Visa, commenting on Visa acquisition of Tink, said: “Visa is committed to doing all we can to foster innovation and empower consumers in support of Europe’s open banking goals.

“By bringing together Visa’s network of networks and Tink’s open banking capabilities we will deliver increased value to European consumers and businesses with tools to make their financial lives more simple, reliable and secure.”

The acquisition is subject to approvals from regulators and other customary closing conditions.

  Al Kelly, Daniel Kjellén, Europe, Financial Institutions, Fintech industry news, Hare Topco, Niacet, SK Capital Partners, Sweden, Visa