Visa to acquire Currencycloud in deal valued at £700m
Visa has announced an agreement to acquire cross-border payments infrastructure firm Currencycloud in a deal valuing the latter at £700 million.
The Currencycloud team at its London HQ
Currencycloud offers API and payments infrastructure solutions enabling clients to offer currency exchange services. The firm claims to support almost 500 banking and technology clients.
Visa says the acquisition will strengthen its foreign exchange capabilities by extending them to better serve financial institutions, fintechs and partners.
It adds Currencycloud will accelerate time-to-market and improve payment transparency for clients looking to offer “flexible, digital-first, international payment services”.
Though the deal is valued at £700 million, the final figure could be reduced by outstanding Currencycloud equity Visa already owns.
Currencycloud will continue operating from its London headquarters and will retain its current management team.
The transaction is still subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
Colleen Ostrowski, Visa’s global treasurer, says the acquisition is another example of Visa “executing on our network of networks strategy to facilitate global money movement”.
She adds: “Consumers and businesses increasingly expect transparency, speed and simplicity when making or receiving international payments.
“With our acquisition of Currencycloud, we can support our clients and partners to further reduce the pain points of cross-border payments and develop great user experiences for their customers.”
Mike Laven, CEO at Currencycloud, adds: “The combination of Currencycloud’s fintech expertise and Visa’s network will enable us to deliver greater customer value to the businesses [of] moving money across borders.”
The news comes off the back of Visa’s €1.8 billion acquisition of Tink, a Swedish open banking fintech, in June. Visa said at the time that the deal will “help accelerate the adoption of open banking in Europe by ensuring a secure, reliable platform for innovation”.
At the start of the year, Visa called off its $5.3 billion mega-merger with Plaid following pressure from US regulators.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against the merger in November 2020. It alleged that Visa’s reason for acquiring Plaid was to take a future competitor out of the market.
FinTech Futures profiled Currencycloud earlier this year, with a deep dive into its technology, practices and operating model.
