The 48.5 percent acquisition deal of Greek fintech startup Viva Wallet by American banking giant JP Morgan has been completed after a lengthy procedure which lasted months.
Minority shareholders Hedosophia (24 percent), the Latsis family (13 percent) and Deca (10 percent) signed the sale of their shares to JP Morgan on Friday in a deal exceeding eight hundred million euros, Greek newspaper Naftemporiki reports.
The company‘s majority shareholders, Haris Karonis and Makis Antypas, maintain the majority stake of 51 percent and will continue to run the company, they said earlier this year.
Official announcements about the deal that rocked the Greek startup universe are expected in the coming week.
Viva Wallet Greece’s first “unicorn” startup
News of the deal made headlines last February, when the Sales and Purchase agreement was signed. Greek regulatory authorities approved the sale in September.
The deal meant that Viva Wallet, which identifies as “the first European entirely cloud-based Neobank,” became the first Greek “unicorn” startup, a term used in the venture capital industry to describe a private startup company with a value of over one billion dollars.
“Created to change the way businesses pay and get paid, we disrupt, innovate, and change the rules of the game within a fragmented financial ecosystem in Europe and the UK,” the startup explains on its website.
It has a presence in twenty-four European countries and employs over six hundred employees, providing services in nineteen different languages and payments in ten currencies. It is an official member of Visa and MasterCard.
In 2020, Viva Wallet had revenues of € 44 million, which almost tripled in size to around €130 million in 2021.
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