FABRICK announces agreement to acquire finAPI from SCHUFA and enters German market
Fabrick’s internationalisation continues, making it one of the frontrunners in Open Finance across Europe
Milan/Munich/Wiesbaden,22 May 2024 – Fabrick, an Open Finance operating company, continues to execute its international growth and consolidation strategy in a growing market, and announces agreement to acquire finAPI GmbH, one of the leading German operators of Open Finance solutions.
The operation, subject to approval by the German and Italian supervisory authorities, is carried out through an agreement signed with SCHUFA Holding AG, from which Fabrick will acquire 75% of finAPI. The other 25% of the shares will remain with the two founders of finAPI, Dr. Florian Haagen and Dr. Martin Lacher, who will both continue to play a role in the unified entity.
The strategy aims to drive forward the innovation of European businesses by enabling new embedded finance service models. Founded in Munich in 2008 to develop solutions for the aggregation and analysis of financial data, finAPI is a pioneering force across the Open Banking, Data Intelligence, KYC, and Payments services. It serves over 350 clients, including banks, financial service providers, fintech companies, insurance companies, and software providers, not only in Germany, but also in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.
Expanding its presence beyond Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, Fabrick takes a significant step by entering into the strategically important DACH region. This move not only establishes Fabrick’s leadership in Germany, but also solidifies its position as one of the key players in Europe’s burgeoning Open Finance segment for services provided.
With a collective client base exceeding 800 and the combination of the volume of Account2Account payments managed by Fabrick and finAPI in 2023, the total value of payments traded is over 65 billion euros and more than 11 billion API calls, solidifying Fabrick’s position as the leading operator in the two reference markets of Italy and Germany.
These numbers are of particular importance considering that payments and their digital evolution represent the most significant component in setting up new service models and B2B and B2B2C relationships. Acutely aware of the growing demand for secure and flexible transactions, European businesses across a range of sectors are increasingly adopting Embedded Finance models to deliver economic efficiency within their organisation, while simultaneously offering a seamless payment experience for their customers.
Since its inception, Fabrick has positioned payment services as a key driver of growth. Leveraging its expertise, proprietary platform, and targeted acquisition strategy, Fabrick has successfully strengthened its unique market positioning. Establishing itself at the intersection of Open Banking and Open Payments, Fabrick has gained a vantage point that oversees the entire service chain, differentiating itself from competitors focused on vertical segments.
Ultimately, Fabrick’s expansion across the payments world, alongside the enlargement of its geographical footprint, have sharpened the company’s competitive edge in the rapidly growing Embedded Finance market.
Paolo Zaccardi, CEO of Fabrick, stated: “This agreement to acquire finAPI, following the recent capital increase with Mastercard and Gruppo Reale Mutua and the acquisition of JudoPay in the United Kingdom, represents another significant milestone for Fabrick, enabling the proliferation of the internationalisation strategy defined since our inception. It allows us to enter the DACH Region, an area of strategic importance in allowing us to scale up our operations and seize the growing opportunities offered by the sector in which we operate. This operation is also a further step in expanding our offering, which now covers the entire value chain of Open Finance services.”
The strategic importance of the German market is also confirmed by the results of the study “Embrace Embedded Finance For Seamless Payment Success: A Spotlight On Europe,” conducted by Forrester Consulting for Fabrick. Of the 126 German decision-makers and managers interviewed, 74% stated they would invest or increase investments in payment acceptance solutions in the next 24 months. Specifically, 77% of the sample said that they will assign a high priority to payment orchestration solutions and 71% to solutions for accepting account-to-account payments via API.
The combined portfolio of finAPI and Fabrick offers customers a wider range of centralised digital solutions. In particular, finAPI‘s customers will benefit from this merger, thanks to the European coverage and Fabrick’s extensive portfolio of payment solutions.
Tanja Birkholz, CEO of SCHUFA, stated: “Over the past three years, we have worked intensively with the goal of creating the greatest possible value for individuals and businesses. Technology plays an important role in developing customer-oriented products and services, and this requires strong partners capable of focusing on technological development. In this sense, Fabrick represents the ideal partner for the further development of finAPI. We know the needs of our customers, and Fabrick and finAPI possess the technological know-how to meet them, allowing them to benefit from further product developments in the field of Open Banking.”
Florian Haagen, CEO and Co-founder of finAPI, stated: “The operation with Fabrick, characterised by its European approach, offers great opportunities for all. Together with the German market business, we will continue to actively shape the future of Open Finance in Europe.”
The transaction remains subject to approval by the German and Italian supervisory authorities. finAPI will remain regulated in Germany and will continue its strategic collaboration with SCHUFA for the development of Open Finance in the German market.
Drake Star Partners and White & Case supported SCHUFA as advisors and legal, while Fabrick was assisted by Chiomenti and Gleiss Lutz for legal matters and Deloitte Financial Advisory for due diligence.
Press contact
Verena van Engen
Senior Marketing & Communications Manager
E-Mail: pr@finapi.io
About finAPI
finAPI GmbH is one of Germany’s leading open banking providers and is licensed by BaFin as an account information and payment initiation service. The Munich-based company has been developing and implementing excellent software and solutions for the aggregation and analysis of financial data since 2008. The focus is on the product areas of Open Banking, Data Intelligence, KYC, and Payments. Customers include more than 350 companies from a wide range of industries, including banks, financial service providers, fintechs, insurance companies and software providers.
About Fabrick
Since 2018, Fabrick has served as a focal point for continuous innovation for its clients, including businesses, fintech companies, and banks. Through an open-platform model, Fabrick simplifies the value chain for companies with easily integrable Open Finance solutions. It enables entities of any sector and size to incorporate digital financial services into their offerings with a rapid time to market, allowing them to seize new business opportunities or enhance their customers’ experience. Fabrick has formed affiliations with innovative entities such as Codd&Date, Dpixel, Alternative Payment Ltd (JudoPay), Fabrick Solutions Spain S.L. and Fintech District – the international reference community for the industry in Italy, with over 290 associated fintech companies. Fabrick is an investee of Sella Group, Mastercard and Reale Mutua Group. Fabrick is headquartered in Italy, with offices in Milan, Turin, Biella, and Rome, and operates internationally via its subsidiaries in Madrid, Lugano and London.
To learn more, visit fabrick.com.
SCHUFA - We create trust
The Schutzgemeinschaft für allgemeine Kreditsicherung – SCHUFA – enables people to fulfil their financial wishes in an uncomplicated, secure and affordable way. We work to ensure that people can do business quickly and easily and that companies can trust them – without knowing them personally. We reduce the risk of non-payment for providers of loans, goods and services, which makes it possible to do more business on good terms. This is how we support growth and prosperity in Germany. SCHUFA is an important part of our economy. We use state-of-the-art technology to analyse and evaluate over 340,000 inquiries every day. This enables us to bring together the wishes of consumers with the security needs of providers. We create credit scores and offer solutions to protect people and companies from identity theft and fraud. We make an important contribution to the prevention of money laundering and help to limit the resulting economic damage. We also provide a platform for the cross-industry exchange of sustainability data. SCHUFA employs around 1,000 people at a total of seven locations and generated around 276 million euros in revenue in the 2023 financial year.
Kontakt
finAPI GmbH
Adams-Lehmann-Str. 44
80797 München
BaFin
Offiziell lizenziert und beaufsichtigt durch die Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht BaFin.