The digital bank Zopa has plans to take over parts of the fintech competitor DivideBuy | Business news
Zopa is investigating a bid for parts of DivideBuy, a buy-now-pay-later provider backed by Davidson Kempner Capital Management, Sky News understands.
Zopa, the UK-based digital bank, is planning a strike on parts of a fintech rival days after raising £75m from investors to accelerate its growth.
Sky News has learned that Zopa is targeting some of the assets of DivideBuy, a buy-now-pay-later provider backed by Davidson Kempner Capital Management, the major US-based investor.
The status and terms of the talks between them were unclear on Wednesday evening, and it was still possible that an agreement would not be reached.
DivideBuy secured a £300m loan facility from Davidson Kempner in September 2021 as part of a deal that also included a minority investment.
Zopa’s interest in parts of its fellow UK fintech has emerged just a week after it confirmed it had raised £75m from existing shareholders.
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A spokesperson at Zopa Bank said: “Acquisitions are part of the growth journey of most technology companies looking to scale and are part of the usual menu of options that support accelerated growth.
“While we have nothing official to announce yet, Zopa is well positioned to explore mergers and acquisitions as it has always focused on strong unit economics and revenue generation.
“Additionally, with a banking license and a multi-product ecosystem, it has diversity of revenue and funding, as well as strong products that have high growth rates.”
Founded in 2004, Zopa became a pioneer in the burgeoning peer-to-peer sector.
Since then, it has been a matter of focusing on more common banking services.
However, it experienced a difficult period in 2019, and was forced to scramble to raise £140m to avoid losing its new banking licence.
New investors in that round were led by IAG Capital Partners, a US-based private investment firm, while it has also been backed by existing long-term shareholders such as listed group Augmentum Fintech.
DivideBuy could not be reached for comment.
