Opera acquires European banking-as-a-service company Pocosys
January 27 2020 - 3:00AM
Opera Limited (Nasdaq: OPRA) (“Opera”), one of the world’s leading
browser providers is bringing new offerings across content,
classifieds and fintech to its large user base of more than 350
million monthly active users. Today, the Norwegian headquartered
company announced completion of the acquisition of the
Estonian-based company Pocosys, as well as an agreement to further
take over Pocopay, its sister company, which holds a payment
institution license and provides financial services in the European
Union. With these acquisitions, Tallinn will become Opera’s second
European hub for fintech services, following Gothenburg, Sweden.
“The way we use financial services is starting to change
rapidly,” said Krystian Kolondra, EVP Browsers and European Fintech
at Opera. “We see a lot of potential for better and easier
services. Needless to say we are excited about our future fintech
plans associated with Pocosys and our existing brand.”
With a growing user base of more than 50 million monthly active
browser users in Europe, Opera is already among the leading
consumer technology companies in the region. A large and growing PC
and smartphone user base is actively choosing to use Opera browsers
rather than the default browsers that come preinstalled on their
devices. With this acquisition, Opera seeks to add additional
capabilities and skill sets to allow for future synergies between
its browser and fintech businesses.
“We are very excited to join the Opera family,” said Oksana
Tolmatshova, the CEO of Pocosys. “Opera is a leading European
consumer technology company, and our solutions will allow Opera to
further grow its unique product offering, entering new
categories”.
The market conditions for the financial sector in Europe are
changing rapidly. Open banking allows third party developers to
build solutions and applications around financial institutions. It
also makes it possible for new challenger banks and payment methods
to emerge and provide new and better services.
“Estonia is a great place to attract talent for any European
fintech efforts,” said Indrek Neivelt, Founder of Pocosys. “The
country is among the most digitized countries in the world, and is
a thriving center for fintech startups.”
The acquisition of Pocosys closed on January 17th and Opera has
entered into a commercial relationship with Pocopay, pending a
second closing upon approval by the Estonian Financial Supervisory
Authority (FSA).
About PocosysFounded in 2015, Pocosys provides
modern banking technologies to fintech companies. It has previously
licensed its financial software to companies in Japan, Ghana and
the UK.In 2019, Pocosys was named among the top 3 IT software
companies in Estonia by the leading Estonian business newspaper
Äripäev. https://pocosys.eu
About Opera Opera is a leading global internet
brand with an engaged and growing base of over 350 million average
monthly active users. Building on over 20 years of innovation,
starting with our browser products, we are increasingly leveraging
our brand as well as our massive and highly active user base in
order to expand our offerings and our business. Today, we offer
users across Europe, Africa and Asia a wide range of products and
services that include our PC and mobile browsers as well as our
AI-powered news reader, Opera News and our app-based microfinance
solutions. https://investor.opera.com/
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0f39035c-61d3-4b6b-9642-c547ac277f3c
Contact:
Julia Szyndzielorz
+48 574 708 305
julia.szyndzielorz@opera.com
Opera (NASDAQ:OPRA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Opera (NASDAQ:OPRA)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024