Fintech company PayU has agreed to acquire Turkish digital payment services provider iyzico for $165m (£129.7m).
iyzico enables secure payments to more than 300 marketplaces. Its network includes more than 400,000 personal sellers of varying sizes and about 30,000 online merchants which use its checkout solution.
Some of the brands that use iyzico solutions in Turkey include Amazon, H&M, Nike, and Zara.
iyzico co-founder and CEO Barbaros Özbu?utu said: “In 2013 we founded iyzico with the goal to enable SMBs all over Turkey to accept online payments, an endeavor that turned into a team of 150 and billion Turkish liras of transaction volume.
“And today we join forces with PayU, a leading global fintech operator and investor with a strong heritage and track record in payments in high growth markets.”
PayU, which is a subsidiary of South Africa-based Naspers, said that the acquisition of the Turkish firm consolidates its leading position in the payments space.
The transaction is also expected to accelerate scale and efficiency of the company in Turkey, which it believes offers a huge opportunity for growth for ecommerce and online payments.
Furthermore with iyzico complementing the digital offering of PayU, the transaction will enable the latter to strengthen its footprint in Turkey.
The acquisition will also help PayU in fast tracking its SMB business with iyzico’s automated solutions, while creating an “online bridge” between Turkey and CEE countries and Africa to promote more cross-border trade in the region in local currencies.
PayU CEO Laurent le Moal said: “PayU has acquired iyzico in a landmark move to deliver on our mission of local consolidation and becoming the number one payments provider in every high growth market we operate in.
“We are delighted to welcome founders Barbaros, Tahsin and the wider iyzico team to PayU as we integrate this high growth business in a key step on our journey to becoming the world’s number one fintech investor.”
The transaction, which will be subject to regulatory approval, is likely to be wrapped up in the next few months.
In April 2019, PayU acquired US digital payment security and mobile payment technology firm Wibmo for $70m. Wibmo provides digital payment services such as payment authentication and risk-based decisioning, and integrates with banks in more than 20 countries.