Nexi, Alpha Bank to Invest $104M in Greece’s Digital Payments Market

Nexi, the Italian payments company, is working with Alpha, the Greek bank, to invest €100 million ($104 million) into the Greek digital payments market within five years, a report from Nasdaq said Monday (July 4).

Nexi bought Alpha Bank’s merchants business last year for €157 million ($163 million).

“Over the next five years we will invest another €100 million or so and will hire another 100 digital talents,” said Nexi’s CEO Paolo Bertoluzzo in a joint press conference with Alpha Bank’s Chief Executive Vassilis Psaltis in Athens.

Bertoluzzo also wants to set up an advance tech center for cash management in Greece which will serve other countries in Europe too.

Nexi has been working on other projects, too, having expanded its operations through buying the retailer payment business arm of Intesa Sanpaolo for €180 million, along with the shop payments business of BPER Banca and Banco Di Sardegna, for €384 million.

See also: AnaCap Acquires EDIGard Invoice Arm From Nexi’s Nets

PYMNTS wrote that EDIGard, the digital invoice distribution arm for Nexi’s digital payments firm Nets, is being bought up by AnaCap Financial Partners as of June this year.

The deal is going forward for an undisclosed set of terms.

EDIGard is headquartered in Kristiansand, Norway, and is a standalone part of Nets Issuer & eSecurity Services.

EDIGard’s EdiEX is an end-to-end invoicing platform which integrates with users’ enterprise resource planning and accounting software. The company was expected to generate €5.4 million in EBITDA.

The decision to sell it was “purely strategic.”

“The sale of EDIGard will allow us to maximize our focus on Issuer & eSecurity Services’ core business and further accelerate growth and synergy creation,” said Torsten Hagen Jørgensen, CEO of Nets Group Issuer & eSecurity Services.

Jørgensen added that this would help out with the further “growth and success” of EDIGard’s business.

The deal will see EDIGard’s workforce remaining in their current roles, with the company keeping its name and brand identity.