GoCardless has scaled up its operational scope and capabilities to target new business sectors by acquiring Sentenial Group, better known by its trading name Nuapay.
The London-based payments technology company has agreed to purchase Nuapay from the company’s current parent group, Australian multinational payments group EM Payments, subject to British and French regulatory approval.
Payroll, financial services, utilities, insurance, gaming and gambling are the sectors GoCardless believes it will gain a stronger foothold in once the acquisition is completed, which it expects to occur within three to six months.
Nuapay CEO, Brian Hanrahan, commented: “GoCardless is an exceptional business that shares our belief that account-to-account payments and open banking are in the process of transforming how the world pays and gets paid.
“This acquisition will result in a combined organisation with deep domestic and international payments and open banking expertise plus the scale to harness these opportunities for our clients and partners.
“It is business as usual for our people and customers, and all of our employees will transition to GoCardless.”
GoCardless has highlighted a number of benefits it believes it will gain by acquiring Nuapay, including a bolstering of its position as a payment provider to independent software vendors (ISVs) and payment service providers (PSPs).
The company intends to accelerate the rollout of disbursement capabilities to its customers and prospects by incorporating Nuapay into its bank payment platform.
Enhancing payment success and fraud reduction features and expanding its focus on disbursements and payment collection through direct debit, real-time payments and Open Banking are key priorities for GoCardless.
In the latter area, the company has recently sought to further consolidate its position in the growing UK Open Banking sector by becoming a supplier on the Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Open Banking Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS).
GoCardless CEO, Hiroki Takeuchi, said: “Nuapay is an established account-to-account payment provider and open banking specialist with a blue-chip customer base.
“Its business is perfectly aligned to our growth strategy, and will accelerate our vision to become the world’s bank payment network.”
