Paysafe acquires Peruvian payments platform PagoEfectivo

Payment platform Paysafe has announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire PagoEfectivo, the peruvian alternative payments platform. For Paysafe, this latest investment represents a strategic foothold in Latin America.

As part of the deal, the PagoEfectivo team, including CEO, Juan Fernando Villena, will join Paysafe and become part of the company’s global eCash and online banking solutions team.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of August, subject to customary closing conditions. Until then, the two groups will continue to operate as independent organizations. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Estudio Rodrigo is serving as Paysafe’s legal and regulatory counsel on the acquisition.

Paysafe’s core purpose is to enable businesses and consumers to connect and transact through its capabilities in payment processing, digital wallet and online cash solutions. It offers over 70 payment types in over 40 currencies around the world. 

PagoEfectivo is a subsidiary of Empresa Editora El Comercio, S.A.. It provides eCash and online banking payments that allow merchants to offer alternative payment methods at the check-out, in turn enabling more consumers in the region, many of whom are underbanked to transact online. 

Founded in 2009, PagoEfectivo payment options are now used by millions of Peruvians as well as consumers in Ecuador, where it also operates. Its strong points are merchants operating in the iGaming, digital goods, travel and eCommerce industries. 

In an official press release,  Udo Mueller, CEO of Paysafe’s eCash division spoke about this new partnership. 

“I am thrilled we are announcing this acquisition. The APM market in Latin America is a thriving one and PagoEfectivo is a market leader in eCash and online banking solutions and the team also brings deep banking relationships and 140,000 distributor partnerships across Peru and Ecuador. We continue to see increasing demand from online merchants wanting to integrate the full payments offering into their check-out, be that seamless card, wallet, cash or bank transfer solutions – and to be able to do this internationally across multiple markets. Once integrated, we believe we will have the opportunity to add new revenues as we cross-sell to each other’s international merchant bases”.

Philip McHugh, CEO of Paysafe, added: “This acquisition reinforces our strategy of investing in, and growing our core, specialized offering in payments processing, digital wallets, eCash and online banking solutions and gives us an important, strategic foothold in Latin America; a region which is expanding fast in eCommerce in general and specifically in the specialized vertical industries such as iGaming, travel, entertainment and digital goods which are very much our sweet spot.”

Mariano Nejamkis, Grupo El Comercio’s General Manager of Press and Digital Businesses, also commented that “the sale of PagoEfectivo has generated high levels of interest because of PagoEfectivo’s excellent performance over recent years as well as its future growth  potential. This performance is the result of the continuous growth of eCommerce in this region as well as our Group’s ability to create compelling new digital brands and products.