Payments startup ecosystem
We track 70 organisations in this sector across 6+ countries.
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Tink
Tink is an open banking platform headquartered in Stockholm, founded in 2012 by Daniel Kjellén and Fredrik Hedberg. It provides open banking APIs and services that let banks, fintechs and merchants access financial data and build their own financial products. Originally a consumer financial-management app, Tink pivoted to offer its technology to other businesses, becoming one of Europe's open banking infrastructure providers. In June 2021 Visa agreed to acquire Tink for approximately €1.8 billion, completing the deal in 2022, after which Tink became wholly owned by Visa while retaining its brand.
TransferGo
TransferGo is a Vilnius-founded international money transfer platform launched in 2012 by Daumantas Dvilinskas and Justinas Lasevicius. The service focuses on migrant remittances, enabling fast and affordable cross-border transfers to over 160 countries. TransferGo has raised over $100 million from investors including Hard Yaka and Valar Ventures. With 350+ employees and offices in the UK, Germany, Lithuania, and Poland, the company has processed billions in transfer volume. It competes with Wise and Remitly in the migrant remittance segment and is one of the Baltics' most prominent fintech exports.
TransferMate
TransferMate is a B2B cross-border payments infrastructure company headquartered in Kilkenny, Ireland. It provides payments-infrastructure-as-a-service and embedded payments technology that lets businesses send and receive international payments, positioning itself as a faster, lower-cost alternative to the traditional correspondent-banking model by enabling local pay-in and pay-out. The company runs a large global payments-licensing network, is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland as an Electronic Money Institution, and reached a valuation above $1 billion in May 2022, becoming an Irish fintech unicorn.
TrueLayer
TrueLayer operates an open banking platform across Europe centered on Pay by Bank, enabling consumers to pay directly from their bank accounts rather than using cards. Its product suite includes Payments, Payouts for instant refunds and withdrawals, Bank on File for recurring payments and subscriptions, plus data, verification, and incentive add-ons. The company serves sectors including ecommerce, iGaming, financial services, travel, and crypto. TrueLayer is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, and has pursued acquisitions to expand its European footprint and add credit-at-checkout capabilities.
Trustly
Trustly is a Stockholm-based open banking payments company founded in 2008 that enables merchants to accept direct bank payments from consumers without cards, apps, or registration. The platform connects to over 8,000 banks across Europe and North America, powering pay-by-bank experiences for e-commerce, financial services, gaming, and travel companies. Nordic Capital acquired a majority stake in 2018 and the company has grown rapidly, processing tens of billions in payment volume annually. Trustly is a key player in Europe's open banking ecosystem and the broader shift away from card-based payments.
Twisto
Twisto is a Prague-based fintech founded in 2013 by Michal Smida, offering buy-now-pay-later and digital payment solutions across Central Europe. The platform allows consumers to defer payments at checkout and manage spending via a mobile app and virtual card, while merchants benefit from higher conversion rates. Twisto expanded into Poland and Romania before being acquired by Zip Co (Australia) in 2022 for approximately $97 million. The company helped pioneer BNPL adoption in CEE and remains a notable Czech fintech exit story.
Unibank Digital
Unibank is one of Azerbaijan's leading commercial banks and has invested heavily in digital transformation, launching mobile-first banking products, contactless payment infrastructure, and fintech partnerships that position it as the country's most digitally progressive financial institution. Its innovation arm develops API-based services, digital onboarding flows, and data-driven lending products aimed at modernizing how Azerbaijani consumers and SMEs interact with financial services. Unibank's fintech initiatives are important to the local ecosystem because they create integration opportunities for startups building on open banking and embedded finance rails.
Viva Wallet
Viva Wallet is an Athens-based neobank and acquiring bank that built Europe's first fully cloud-native card-acquiring platform, running on Microsoft Azure and designed from day one for SoftPOS and ISO-independent merchant onboarding. The company serves small and medium merchants across 24 European countries with Android-based payment terminals, e-commerce gateways, IBAN accounts, instant settlement, and merchant cash advance products, and crossed 500,000 merchants before the JPMorgan Chase acquisition closed. JPMorgan bought a majority stake in 2022 valuing Viva Wallet at around USD 2 billion, specifically to use its cloud-native acquiring stack as the base for Chase's own European merchant-services expansion — one of the largest strategic tech acquisitions ever done out of Greece. Founded by Haris Karonis, Viva is today the anchor of the Athenian fintech cluster and proof that payments infrastructure of global quality can be built outside of London, Amsterdam, and Stockholm.
Wise
Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a London-based fintech that built a peer-to-peer international money transfer platform offering transparent, low-cost cross-border payments at the real mid-market exchange rate. Founded by Kristo Kaarmann and Taavet Hinrikus, Wise went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2021 and now serves over 16 million customers, processing billions in cross-border volume each quarter. The company has expanded into multi-currency accounts, business payments, and a platform API used by banks and large enterprises.
Zilch
Zilch is a London-based fintech founded in 2018 that offers a buy-now-pay-later and payments app funded partly by advertising, letting customers pay over time at any merchant while earning rewards. It reached unicorn status and reports over one hundred million pounds of annualised revenue, positioning itself as an ad-subsidised alternative to traditional credit.
