JP Morgan announced its first investment for 2022 and the acquisition of 49% of Viva Wallet with the aim of expanding to small and medium-sized business payments in Europe.
Although the terms of the deal have not been announced, reports indicate that JP Morgan will pay 1 billion dollars for 49% of Viva Wallet, with the initial team of Haris Karonis retaining 51% and the management.
“We are very excited to make a strategic investment in Viva Wallet to support its vision to strengthen the new growth and payment innovation aimed at European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and commercial service customers in the mid-market,” said Takis Georgakopoulos, Global Head of J.P. Morgan Payments.”The European payments landscape is fragmented but big in terms of opportunities, with more than 17 million merchants ready to implement scalable payment solutions and this is a big focus point for additional growth for J.P. Morgan Payments in the future,” he continued.
“Viva Wallet’s mission is to change the way businesses pay and are paid in Europe with cutting-edge technology, unprecedented flexibility and in-depth knowledge of the European payment landscape,” said Haris Karonis, CEO and co-founder of Viva Wallet. “This strategic investment by J.P. Morgan’s payment businesses will allow us to complete the development of our vision to provide local payment and transaction services to SMEs all over Europe.”
J.P. Morgan recently unveiled its brand for payments to SMEs, Chase Payment Solutions, in the U.S., and the strategic investment in Viva Wallet according to the announcement lays the foundations for the development of future international products and services to all European SMEs.
J.P. Morgam’s investment in Viva Wallet follows that in Volkswagen Financial Services AG last November, a major payment and loan provider in Europe.