UK headquartered specialized payments platform Paysafe acquires US-based SafetyPay for £320 million Transaction

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Paysafe to Acquire SafetyPay

  • Latest acquisition enables Paysafe to further scale in the high-growth Latin American region, taking advantage of the nascent open banking eco-system and building on its acquisition of PagoEfectivo.
  • Transaction expected to drive multiple cross-selling opportunities across all Paysafe business units, enhancing long term growth prospects.

London: August 16, 2021 – Paysafe (NYSE:PSFE) (“the company”), a leading specialized payments platform, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SafetyPay for USD 441 million in an all-cash transaction.  SafetyPay is a leading payments platform that enables eCommerce transactions via an unrivalled choice of open banking and eCash solutions, operating primarily in Latin America. For Paysafe, this latest deal strengthens its strategic foothold in Latin America, building on its recently announced acquisition agreement with Peruvian payments platform, PagoEfectivo.  Together the two acquisitions set Paysafe up to be the leading open banking and eCash solutions provider in Latin America, one of the world’s fastest-growing online markets.

Paysafe’s core purpose is to enable businesses and consumers to connect and transact seamlessly through industry-leading capabilities in payment processing, digital wallets, eCash and online banking solutions.  It offers over 70 payment types in over 40 currencies around the world.

SafetyPay was founded in 2007 as an eCommerce payments platform with the mission to enable millions of consumers to use alternative payment methods (APMs), most notably bank transfer and eCash solutions, to make online purchases.  It now has a presence in 11 Latin American countries (with additional coverage in Europe, see below*), and operates via an unparalleled network of banks, with over 90 per cent bank coverage, and over 180,000 cash collection points.  It serves nearly 300 merchants primarily in the travel, entertainment, and digital goods industries.

Upon completion of the transaction, Paysafe will have scale and a leading presence in the fast-growing Latin American eCommerce market, where merchants and consumers alike are showing an increasing appetite to use open banking and eCash solutions to transact online. Further, with SafetyPay having established relationships with more banks in Latin America than any other payments provider, Paysafe will be uniquely positioned to capture share of the nascent open banking market by integrating further Paysafe services and solutions into the region’s payments ecosystem including its digital wallet and gateway capabilities.  

On completion of the deal, the SafetyPay team will transition into Paysafe’s expanding eCash and online banking solutions’ team which is headed up by Paysafe eCash CEO, Udo Mueller.  At that time, SafetyPay’s CEO, Gustavo Ruiz Moya, will become CEO, eCash for Latin America and Global Head of Open Banking, reporting into Mueller.  The enlarged Paysafe eCash business will be able to offer eCash and open banking solutions in over 60 countries with over one million distribution points. 

“We are very excited to welcome SafetyPay into the Paysafe family. The team has successfully built a market-leading payment platform that has become the de facto open banking solution for Latin America.  We look forward to partnering with Gustavo and the team to continue to build eCash and online banking solutions across LATAM and beyond.

Furthermore, by combining the capabilities and open banking network of both SafetyPay and PagoEfectivo with our existing solutions in processing, digital wallets and eCash, along with our deep expertise in specialized verticals such as iGaming, travel and digital goods, we can become the true market leader in the region and provide merchants with unique and powerful combinations to grow their business,” commented Philip McHugh, CEO of Paysafe.

“We are really pleased to see SafetyPay and PagoEfectivo become part of Paysafe and expand our payment solutions across card payment processing, digital wallets, eCash and online banking payments with a strong foothold in high growth Latin American markets. We see exciting synergies in key industry verticals like iGaming where we want to win. From the start, we have had a plan to grow in areas where we can achieve scale through operational efficiency. It is great to see the team execute and create more opportunities for growth,” commented Bill Foley, Chairman of Paysafe’s Board of Directors.

The SafetyPay transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter, 2021.  Paysafe’s banks have provided financing commitments and Paysafe intends to refinance these bridge facilities with new debt contemporaneously with the completion of the acquisition.

RBC Capital Markets, LLC served as exclusive financial advisor and Greenberg Traurig, LLP served as legal advisor to Paysafe. PJT Partners served as exclusive financial advisor and Quarles & Brady served as legal advisor to SafetyPay.

~ENDS~

About Paysafe Limited

Paysafe Limited (“Paysafe”) (NYSE:PSFE) (PSFE.WS) is a leading specialised payments platform. Its core purpose is to enable businesses and consumers to connect and transact seamlessly through industry-leading capabilities in payment processing, digital wallet, and online cash solutions. With over 20 years of online payment experience, an annualised transactional volume of US $92 billion in 2020, and approximately 3,400 employees located in 12+ global locations, Paysafe connects businesses and consumers across 70 payment types in over 40 currencies around the world. Delivered through an integrated platform, Paysafe solutions are geared toward mobile-initiated transactions, real-time analytics and the convergence between brick-and-mortar and online payments.  Further information is available at www.paysafe.com.

About Paysafe’s eCash Division

Paysafe is a global market leader in the provision of eCash payment solutions. The goal of its eCash division is to target simple and secure online transactions through prepaid and online cash solutions.  Today, it is available to purchase in over 650,000 sales outlets in over 50 countries and its brands include paysafecard, paysafecard account, paysafecard Mastercard® and Paysafecash. 

Its original product, paysafecard, uses a 16-digit PIN and enables customers to shop online without using an account or credit card, protecting their confidential financial information. In 2018, the paysafecard team developed Paysafecash allowing customers to shop online first and then pay securely for their purchases with cash at convenient, nearby payment points.  Paysafecash is already available in nearly 30 countries. In 2020, paysafecard and Paysafecash reached a transaction volume of more than US$ 4.6 billion.

For more information, please go to www.paysafecard.com

About SafetyPay

SafetyPay was founded in 2007 as an eCommerce payment platform designed to empower online shoppers, merchants and banks to transact safely.  The company’s software offers real-time global payment options, including bank transfers and eCash solutions as well as other alternative payment methods (APMs), to securely make online purchases from merchants worldwide and pay directly via a local bank or other point of sale, in the currency of one’s choice.

SafetyPay’s core mission continues to be to drive online payment inclusion for the entire Latin American population and enable Latin American and European merchants to expand their sales into new international markets.  14 years on, it now operates via the largest network of banks and cash collection points in 11 countries in Latin America with over 180,000 collection points.  *SafetyPay also has an additional network of over 380 bank partnerships, and another 20,000+ collection points in seven European countries.

SafetyPay is a private company backed by various venture capitalists including the International Finance Corporation, Armilar Venture Partners and Escort Investments.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on by any investor as, a guarantee, an assurance, or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Paysafe Limited’s (“Paysafe,” “PSFE” or the “Company”) actual results may differ from their expectations and  estimates and, consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Words such as “anticipate,” “appear,” “approximate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “foresee,” “guidance,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “seek,” “should,” “would” and variations of such words and similar expressions  may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.

These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially, and potentially adversely, from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. While the Company believes its assumptions concerning future events are reasonable, a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including, but not limited to: the timing and satisfaction of closing conditions in connection with the transaction, the possibility that the transaction may not close, economic and political conditions in the global markets in which we operate, the possibility that integration following the transaction may be more difficult than expected.; and other factors included in the “Risk Factors” in our Form 20-F and in other filings we make with the SEC, which are available at https://www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company expressly disclaims any obligations or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in their expectations with respect thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any statement is based, except as required by law.

Press contact

Kate Aldridge

[email protected]

Investor contact

Kirsten Nielsen

[email protected]

Safiya Marzook

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