Powens and Unnax combine to create European Open Finance ‘champion’

Open Finance fintechs Powens and Unnax are to combine their technologies to create a European Open Finance “champion” and extend their joint reach in the Latin American market.

The combination of France-based Powens and Spain’s Unnax has been driven by growth equity firm PSG Equity, following its investment in Powens in 2022.

PSG Equity intends to make a further investment in Unnax, which is expected to close in 2023, subject to regulatory approval, to bring Unnax and Powens together into one group.

Romain Railhac, managing director at PSG Equity, said: “PSG Equity invested in Powens in 2022 to back one of France’s pioneers of Open Finance, with a vision to create a European leader with scale and drive innovation in the financial services industry.

“We are excited to make a further investment in Unnax, one of Spain’s local champions in Open Finance, and bring them into the Powens group to accelerate our vision and deliver exceptional Open Finance products across Europe.”

The transaction is subject to authorization by Spain’s central bank, Banco de España.

Powens currently provides connectivity to 11 European countries via one API.

The fintech plans to tap into Unnax’s regulatory license as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) and its digital payments “expertise” to continue to create Open Finance products and services, including PSD2 and “beyond-PSD2” financial data, data analytics and categorization, payment initiation, electronic money wallets, IBANs, credit checking, and onboarding services.

“We have a unique opportunity ahead of us to push the boundaries of the Open Finance revolution together and deliver the best combination of innovative technologies and best-in-class services in Europe,” said Bertrand Jeannet, chief executive officer of Powens.

“Unnax shares our same entrepreneurial DNA, passion for creating industry-leading Open Finance products and solutions, and forward-thinking vision for the future, and the combination allows us to reinforce our position as one of Europe’s definitive independent Open Finance champions.”

Last year, Unnax’s technology platform supported more than 50 customers in the delivery of digital financial services products, with approximately 2.3 million unique end-users connected and approximately €1.3 billion payments processed in 2022.

Unnax entered Latin America in 2021, launching in Mexico initially, where it now connects the banking and non-banking data of in excess of one million people every month.

Julián Díaz-Santos, Unnax co-founder and co-chief executive officer, added: “Joining forces with Powens will allow us to accelerate our innovation, strengthen our product development for existing customers in Spain and Latin America, and jointly offer the most innovative Open Finance products across Europe and Latin America.”