Digital payment platform startup Payoneer, which is doing battle with PayPal and other major players, is acquiring Munich-based optile, a tech firm that streamlines the payment acceptance process for merchants. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
With services that include cross-border payments, providing working capital, tax solutions and risk management, Payoneer’s customers include such power brands as Airbnb, Amazon, Google and Upwork. Its value is reported as exceeding $1 billion.
In announcing the optile deal, Payoneer noted that it’s profitable and CEO Scott Galit said the deal does not involve outside funding. The transaction is expected to close within the next two months.
optile’s cloud-based payment orchestration platform operates with a single API. That allows merchants to accelerate time to market, lower cost and create a system of partners for cross-sales by allowing affiliated merchants to share the same payment process, Payoneer said.
As an example, Payoneer explained that airlines can create an ecosystem of merchants offering travel-related services, in which customers secure otherwise independent services without re-entering payment information for each purchase.
“Cross-border payments is a $50 trillion market,” Payoneer CEO Scot Galit told TechCrunch. “That’s a gigantic and broad space in practice.”
Payoneer, whose payment platform reaches millions of consumers across 200 countries and territories, said optile’s 75-person team will operate as an independent group. optile founder and CEO Daniel Smeds was director of technology at payments firm Wirecard, and then founded and sold payments business Pay.On to ACI, according to TechCrunch.
Other partnerships for Payoneer in recent years include integrating with eZ Cash, Sri Lanka’s leading mobile money network and a brand of the Dialog Axiata group.
In its most recent sampling of more than 100,000 merchants selling globally, Payoneer found ecommerce in the United States is growing faster than in China, which remains ahead in terms of overall sales volume, based on client data from payment services firm Payoneer, and the UK is growing faster than both.