Italian digital bank illimity has reached an agreement to buy a 50% stake in Hype, the open banking outfit owned by Banca Sella.
In a deal worth around EUR140 million, illimity will join Sella's Fabrick fintech unit as owner of Hype, which provides open banking services to 1.3 million customers.
The joint venture will combine Hype's work with the new open banking-based collaborative 'Hubs' offering illimity has been developing in recent months, signing up electronic scooter-sharing firm MiMoto and fitness tracker Fitbit as partners.
Corrado Passera, CEO, illimity, says: "Just as in the direct digital banking segment, illimity has strongly innovated and will continue to do so by expanding its field of action, in the non banking segment we were delighted to take this opportunity to partner with the Italian leader to become a true industry benchmark.
"We are already closely linked to the Sella Group by technological collaboration and we are particularly pleased that it has decided to consolidate a long-term relationship between us also through an investment in illimity share capital."