Banco Santander’s payment fintech, PagoNxt, has acquired 70% of its Mexican tech partner Mercadotecnia, Ideas y Tecnología (MIT) as part of its strategy to expand its merchant payments business globally under the Getnet brand.
MIT was founded in 2004. It has over 35,000 customers and 125,000 retail locations that process 31 million payments a month. Its share of the merchant payments market in Mexico is 10%, and its products and services include points of sale (POS), e-commerce, smartphone payments, a call centre and direct debit.
Javier San Félix, chief operations officer of PagoNxt, says the global Getnet franchise will be able to export MIT's capabilities in Mexico to other countries.
“The acquisition of MIT marks another step in our quest to make Getnet the go-to payments business in Latin America and Europe with the best and most well-rounded service for our clients on both sides of the Atlantic," he says. "Our aim is to help them grow their businesses with simpler and safer payments using the most advanced technology”.
Getnet, which operates in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and soon in Uruguay, has the third highest customer base and turnover among merchant payment firms in Latin America, counting 1.1 million clients. The business processed €90 billion in some four billion payments in 2020.
In July, Santander announced plans to extend Getnet to European markets. The service is already available in Banco Santander's home market Spain, and also in Portugal.
Getnet has over 2,300 employees worldwide. Around 600 are in Europe, where it is looking to increase its headcount by 20% to further its growth strategy.
Initially covering online payments for large e-commerce retailers the business will undertake a phased expansion to include over-the-counter and other types of payments.