Finch Capital, the early-stage fintech VC with a presence in London and Amsterdam, is acquiring Wirecard Turkey, a subsidiary of Wirecard, the disgraced fintech out of Germany. The acquisition, for which terms remain undisclosed and is still subject to regulatory approval, sees Finch create a new Ireland-registered entity called Nomu Pay.
After facing a huge accounting scandal and failing to make payments on its own loans, Wirecard went into insolvency last year. Since then, various parts of its business have been bought, including one of its largest assets, Wirecard Solutions, which was acquired by the U.K.’s Railsbank.
Finch’s managing partner Radboud Vlaar tells me Noma Pay’s larger plan is to invest in payments infrastructure in Turkey and the Middle East region. He says that more details will be provided on the new entity’s strategy and branding once the deal has formally closed.
Explains Vlaar: “We see tremendous growth opportunities to further enhance payments for Turkey’s 80 million inhabitants. We are excited to team up with Wirecard Turkey under the leadership of its CEO Serkan Yasin and we continue to actively look for further M&A opportunities in the region to accelerate its growth and development”.
Wirecard Turkey (Wirecard Ödeme ve Elektronik Para Hizmetleri A.Ş.) was established in Turkey in July 2008 and started its operations the following year as the country’s first “direct carrier billing” service provider. In 2014, it was wholly acquired by Wirecard Issuing & Acquiring Gmbh, which is a subsidiary of Wirecard AG.
Today, the Turkish company provides various payment services, namely: direct carrier billing, credit card acquiring, and e-money. It has contracts with all three GSM operators and the majority of banks in Turkey, and more than 1,200 merchants.
“There is great talent in Turkey to build a leading next generation payments company,” adds Vlaar.