BBVA steps up fintech acquisition strategy with purchase of Openpay

BBVA's ongoing strategy to buy out promising fintech startups has moved ahead with the acquisition of Mexican B2B payments platform Openpay.

Currently, Openpay has a network of more than 15,000 payment reception points in Mexico, connected in real time through its Paynet network, and manages more than one million transactions a month. The Openpay platform is used by more than 1000 businesses in Mexico, from startups to SMEs and large corporate clients.

The company was a finalist in BBVA's Open Talent competition in 2015, after a screening process that involved almost 200 experts and 652 projects from 63 countries.

With BBVA's backing, the company has set its sights on tripling the number of transactions currently processed to more than three million by the end of the year.

Teppo Paavola, general manager for new digital business at BBVA, says: “Openpay is one of the principal innovators in Latin America in payments. Its development platform transforms the manner in which companies can do business online. By leveraging the synergies between Openpay and BBVA Bancomer, we hope to contribute to the growth of electronic commerce."

Acquisitions and investments play a key role in BBVA’s digital strategy. OpenWay will join other recent acquisitions in the bank's startup portfolio, which includes Finland's Holvi, UX design company Spring Studio's, big data firm Madiva Solucotion and neo-bank Simple.

Related Companies

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Retail banking Payments Start ups

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Innovation Mergers and acquisitions

Comments: (1)

Enrico Camerinelli - Aite Group - Boston 30 April, 2017, 10:38

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Digital banking appears the new frontier for competition and leadership in the financial services space. While for some time this has been the norm in retail banking, only as of recent we see corporate transaction banks doing the same. BBVA has selected a partner to cover B2B payments through its vast network. According to my analysis, the real value the bank gets from this partnership is the network (as a matter of fact the article reads that the number of transactions have already tripled) and also- and most importantly- the possibility to manage new forms of payment processes, typical of a B2B environment: marketplaces, online merchants, subscription-based payments. Additional API programming environment enables BBVA to expand its footprint in the B2B payments ecosystem.

I am seeing with interest the opening of a new trend: Contextual Payments. According to my research, payment providers will support corporate clients (and banks) to analyse the kind of payment to be executed (e.g., to suppliers, taxes, salaries, high-value) and suggest the best payment rail (e.g., real-time, batch, ACH) depending on the business objective of the company/ bank (e.g., minimize cost, accelerate payment, reduce currency exchange fees, maximize liquidity).