Canadian payment company Nuvei Corporation has announced its plans to acquire Simplex, a FinTech startup providing the fiat infrastructure to the cryptocurrency industry, for approximately US$250 million.
- Founded in 2014, Simplex has grown into a leading fiat-cryptocurrency gateway connecting market participants including exchanges, brokers, wallet and liquidity providers.
- Simplex delivers the infrastructure for users to buy or sell cryptocurrencies (i.e. on-ramp/off-ramp capabilities) using credit and debit cards.
- Through its proprietary fraud and risk management tools, Simplex provides a zero-chargeback guarantee to its customers, resulting in higher conversion rates.
- In addition, the acquisition will provide Nuvei with an electronic money institution (EMI) license to offer IBAN accounts to end users and corporations, and offers future banking and card issuing capabilities.
- As a principal member of the Visa network, Simplex has permission to issue Visa cards, giving its consumers access to digital currencies daily. Simplex processed approximately $500 million of total volume* in 2020 and is expected to process more than $2.0 billion of total volume* in 2021.
- The all-cach deal is expected to close in the second half of 2021.
Philip Fayer, Nuvei’s Chair and CEO, said:
“We expect Simplex to enhance and expand Nuvei’s steadily growing portfolio of alternative payment methods, adding turnkey simplicity to the process of buying and selling cryptocurrency and converting it back to fiat within a user account – ultimately reducing complexity for merchants and consumers.”
“Simplex’s infrastructure is a natural fit for Nuvei’s Native Commerce Platform, further strengthening the capabilities and overall value proposition of our single-integration approach to payments. We are excited to welcome Simplex to the Nuvei team.”
Nimrod Lehavi, Simplex’s Co-founder and CEO, commented on the deal:
“By joining Nuvei, Simplex will be able to fulfill its promise of bridging the gap between the blockchain space and the traditional finance world.”
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