Australia's EML Payments is entering the European and UK market for Open Banking services through the acquisition of Irish firm Sentenial and its NuaPay product.
The Australian vendor is buying Sentenial for an upfront enterprise value of €70 million, plus an earn-out component of up to €40 million.
Sentenial is a cloud-native, API-first, payments company, processing €45 billion per annum and is dually regulated in the United Kingdom and France. The firm is currently connected to 1,750 banks and growing across Europe.
Sentenial, and its Open Banking brand Nuapay, provides EML with the capabilities to manage payments across the two major card schemes Mastercard and Visa, and via accoun-to-account money transfer.
The combined group will process in excess of A$90 billion in Gross Debit Volume. Completion of the deal is subject to regulatory approval, and the acquisition is expected to complete in late FY21.
As well as providing an entrée into European markets, EML intends to expand Sentenial's platform and products into the North American and Australian markets.
Tom Cregan, EML’s managing director & group CEO, states: “EML has transitioned over the years from primarily a gift-card company to a company with a diverse revenue base across multiple prepaid products. The acquisition of Sentenial will be the next evolution for EML, as we transition into a broader payments business by adding instant account-to-account (Open Banking) payments into our suite of solutions for current and prospective customers.
"Rhe entire EML family looks forward to welcoming the Sentenial team, which is currently comprised of 60 full-time employees. Geographically, with its principal office in Ireland and offices located in London, Paris, Brussels and Krakow, Sentenial fits well with EML."