PayPal Boosts Investment In Tink Open Banking Platform

PayPal Boosts Investment In Tink Platform

PayPal has re-upped its stake in Tink with an investment of an undisclosed size that was part of a previously announced 90 million euro funding round.

Daniel Kjellén, co-founder and CEO of Tink, said in the announcement, “As Europe’s leading open banking platform, we are looking forward to continuing to support PayPal as they extend and enhance their services across the whole of Europe.”

PayPal’s first investment in Tink, which enables FinTechs to access customers’ financial data, was in June 2019 and totaled $11.2 million. At the time, the companies said the investment would be used for Tink to expand its team, develop new products and connect more banks.

Tink is one of the FinTechs that is taking advantage of the Payments Services Directive 2, or PSD2, which enables consumers to authorize third parties to access their banking data and make payments for them. If FinTechs can access customers’ financial data more easily, this could lead to increased competition in banking.

“You see two mega trends in banking: a move from analog to digital and from closed to open,” Kjellén said in 2019. “This is where the market is heading.”

Tink has been on the move this year. It has already acquired Eurobits, which specializes in account aggregation technology. Tink bought Eurobits for 15.5 million euros ($17.2 million). Eurobits, which was founded in 2004 with headquarters in Madrid, works has worked with banks and FinTech companies like BBVA, Santander, Sabadell and Fintonic. The company had 54 employees at the time of the deal.

Founded in 2012 in Stockholm, Tink said it connects to more than 2,500 banks that reach over 250 million banking customers across Europe. The company’s 270 employees serve 14 European markets out of 13 offices.