Just weeks after completing the sale of its terminal business to Apollo Funds for €2.3 billion, Worldline announces the closing of the acquisition of a 55% stake in SoftPos.eu, a Warsaw-based fintech that converts Android devices into secure payment terminals. Worldline also acquired a call option to buy in 24 months the remaining 45% owned by the two founders and key stakeholders of the company.
This acquisition fully embeds Worldline’s objective to provide payment solutions that are adapted to all forms of commerce and serve the business ambitions of its clients. Based on SoftPos.eu, Worldline is launching a new product internationally: Worldline Tap on Mobile.
Worldline Tap on Mobile is a unique end-to-end solution based on Android application that allows all merchants – from micro to large – to accept payments using a smartphone, tablet, or enterprise device through one single tap. The solution is designed to accept small amounts simply by “tap” but also larger amounts with PIN entry on the screen.
Worldline Tap on Mobile is the first payments application certified by Zebra Technologies. Zebra Technologies is a global leader in enterprise asset intelligence, providing handheld devices for a large variety of verticals. The product has been fully certified by Zebra and makes Worldline the first payment partner of Zebra globally. Through this partnership, specialized integrators and partners in all segments can add payment to their customers’ offering over their Android devices.
Niklaus Santschi, Head of Merchant Services at Worldline, commented: “There is an appetite towards mobile payments from both consumers and businesses sides. With SoftPos.eu acquisition and the concrete business materialisation of Worldline Tap on Mobile, Worldline is now providing its clients with full suite of solutions adapted to all growth ambitions. Complementing our existing offers, Worldline Tap on Mobile offers convenience and flexibility to all sizes of commerce, it is all about a single – and safe – tap. Worldline is now covering by itself a new core feature in the payments value chain, enabling to deploy it on demand, for both existing and new clients. This marks a new key strategic positioning for our company in the current landscape, with many business opportunities for us, and we’re just excited about the road ahead.”
Grzegorz Nowakowski, CEO of SoftPos.eu, commented: “Worldline was the first major player to believe in SoftPos, its team and its product. Back in 2020 when we were launching our co-operation, the market for app-based terminals was much smaller than it is now. From the very first day we felt that only with support from a strong strategic partner we will seize the full opportunity to grow. Now we can clearly see that we were right. We are extremely happy that the appreciation was mutual, and we have come to this investment stage. SoftPos.eu has built an advanced but easy-to-use technology already actively used by multiple merchants of all sizes across Europe. Having Worldline as our strategic investor means strong support both in further product development as well as sales to other markets and merchants.”
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SoftPos.eu was created in 2019 by two payment entrepreneurs in Poland. The fintech converts regular Android devices into secure payment terminals, enabling merchants to accept card payments without the need for additional hardware.
In Q3 2022, Worldline significantly enriched its value proposition for both instore and online merchants, notably through the acquisition of a 40% stake in Online Payment Platform B.V. and 55% of SoftPos.eu.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
