Ryan Reynolds adds Nuvei to investment portfolio

“Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds has a new role: investor in Canadian FinTech Nuvei.

The actor and Vancouver native announced his support for the company on Monday (April 17), the latest in a string of high-profile investments from Reynolds.

“I know about as much about fintech as I did about gin or mobile a few years ago,” he said in a press release from Nuvei.

“But Nuvei is impressive. The management team is extremely intelligent and hard-working, and it’s time for a Canadian company to get the kind of attention American tech companies do.”

The investment came just weeks after Mint Mobile, a wireless carrier in which Reynolds held a 25% stake, was bought by T-Mobile for $1.35 billion. Reynolds also invests in American Aviation Gin and the UK’s Wrexham Football Club.

“We are thrilled to welcome Ryan to the Nuvei family,” Nuvei Chairman and CEO Phil Fayer said in the press release.

“We are a global company, but extremely proud of our Canadian roots and values, so it is a privilege to have one of the most internationally recognized Canadians, as well as an entrepreneur with such renowned business acumen, join our investors.”

Reynolds’ likeness was featured prominently on the Nuvei website on Monday, with the payments company featuring him in a series of tongue-in-cheek ads.

“For the longest time, American technology companies have received all the attention. Why? Because Canadians are terrible at promoting themselves, the actor says in one of the ads, before whispering, “But not all Canadians.”

Joking aside, Nuvei has expanded its global reach recently. Last month, the company announced its entry into Australia, part of a wider push into the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

As PYMNTS wrote at the time, the company already had a presence in Hong Kong, which serves as a foothold to access the huge Chinese market of around 1.4 billion consumers. And its operations in Singapore help it reach customers in a number of Southeast Asian countries.

Australia, on the other hand, “is a prospect of a different nature, mostly involving itself and neighboring New Zealand,” we wrote.

Together, the two countries make up tens of millions of consumers with heavy digital penetration and a modern national payment infrastructure.

“If you look at Australia today, it’s an unprecedented market,” Nuvei Global Expansion Officer for Digital Payments Praful Morar told PYMNTS.

Referring to Hong Kong and Singapore, he added: “These are strategic points that touch very large regions. If you look at Southeast Asia itself, we touch a huge population. Same in Hong Kong and Australia. Australia and New Zealand affecting around 30 million people.”