Dive Brief:

• Payments company Rapyd plans to acquire Icelandic payments processing company Valitor in a transaction valued at $100 million, subject to regulatory approvals, the companies said in a press release Thursday. With the acquisition, Rapyd expects to make Iceland its European hub, the company said in the press release. It’s buying the operation from the Icelandic bank Arion Banki.
• Rapyd, which provides businesses with payments services in markets around the world and across borders, is on the hunt for acquisitions after adding another $300 million in venture capital to its coffers earlier this year, according to a January press release. Top American venture capital firms, including Coatue Management, Tiger Global and General Catalyst, have provided it with funding.
• “With the acquisition of Valitor, customers across Europe will now have access to a greater and more diverse set of payment offerings, ensuring that more companies can take advantage of any opportunity they wish to pursue,” said Rapyd CEO Arik Shtilman said in the release Thursday.

Dive Insight:

London-based Rapyd is building out its cloud-based business with a capital hoard collected over years. Before the most recent round of fundraising this year, Rapyd landed $100 million in 2019, according to TechCrunch. 

While the company's official headquarters is in London, the company's CEO and a lot of the research and development are based in Tel Aviv, said Raanan Loew, a spokesman for the company. Rapyd also has offices in Mountain View, California and Singapore. 

The company has attracted investors with the promise of allowing merchants to easily sell their wares and services via the internet into markets around the world and to receive payments through the Rapyd global network, while complying with local rules and laws.

Rapyd bolstered its operations with the acquisition last year of another Icelandic company, Korta, a merchant acquirer aiding businesses in accepting credit card payments. Rapyd said earlier this year that it’s exploring “strategic acquisitions in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa.”

Valitor, founded in 1983 and rebranded under its current name in 2019, describes itself on its web site as an international payment service provider that caters to merchants, consumers and banks, facilitating the buying and selling of goods and services. Valitor also said on the site that it issues cards in connection with major international cards networks, including Visa and Mastercard; handles cash transfers; and operates an online payment gateway.

Valitor’s foothold in Europe made it attractive to Rapyd. The Icelandic company has about 250 employees in Iceland and the United Kingdom, and commerce reaching into 28 countries on the continent, according to the company's website.

“We plan to continue to grow and invest in Iceland,” Shtilman said in the release, in a preamble to dubbing it the company’s new European hub. 

In addition to acquisitions, Rapyd has also been using its capital stockpile to double up its product and engineering teams and to build out its “self-service” offerings for businesses, the company said in the January release.