Alisa Bank snaps up invoice financing fintech Puro Finance to bolster SME services
Alisa Bank in Finland has instigated a merger with invoice financing fintech Puro Finance to establish its digital banking services for SMEs further.
Alisa Bank to acquire Puro Finance
The proposed merger is to be completed by way of a share exchange, in which the bank will acquire the fintech from its shareholders in exchange for a 40% stake – valued at €10.4 million – in the combined entity.
After the transaction closes, which is estimated to happen around May subject to customary closing conditions, Puro Finance will continue to operate its invoice financing service – which supports invoicing, financing, credit insurance, collection and bookkeeping functions – but as the bank’s subsidiary.
The bank says its strategy thereafter will focus primarily on “digital banking and finance services for SMEs”, particularly the promotion of its Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and corporate lending operations, with this latter service targeting 25% annual growth through to 2026.
For BaaS, the bank is to leverage the fintech’s existing partner network, which extends to its largest shareholder Accountor, to tap new growth in its customer volumes. With this, it adds that it has already agreed with the investor to launch “integrated banking services to Accountor’s clients and will commence investigations regarding cooperation with respect to also other finance services”.
In addition to this remit, it cites the key drivers of the deal as “capital efficient growth, growth in customer volume, technological trailblazing and strong synergies”.
Juha Saari, interim CEO of Alisa Bank, claims the combination of the two businesses will “generate significant short and medium-term synergies” to the benefit of the bank’s profitability and growth, and will “significantly increase our customer potential and supports our strategy to provide integrated banking services in the channels of financial administration providers and other partners”.
