KKR, a global investment firm with over $150 billion in assets under management, has an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Germany based Fintech heidelpay. The deal involved AnaCap Financial Partners which is currently the majority shareholder in heidelpay.
Details on the acquisition were not provided.
Mirko Hüllemann, founder and CEO of heidelpay, and other key managers are said to be staying with the firm and remaining as long-term shareholders.
Daniel Knottenbelt, Member and Head of EMEA Financial Services at KKR, said they look forward to working with Hüllemann and his management team to help heidelpay to continue its growth.
“We see enormous growth potential both organically and through M&A across Europe,” said Knottenbelt. “We will draw on our deep sector knowledge, [the] track record of working with founders, and our expertise through 20 years of investing in Germany to further shape heidelpay’s unique profile.”
Tassilo Arnhold, Managing Director at AnaCap, said that heidelpay represents another successful digital value creation investment story for AnaCap.
Based in Heidelberg, the heidelpay Group is a fast-growing Fintech service provider that provides international payment processing including payment via invoice, installment payments, direct debit, direct payments, and prepayments. Heidelpay is authorized by the German Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
Founded in 2003, heidelpay reportedly serves over 30,000 retailers and marketplace operators in Europe, focusing on SMEs and corporates.
An earlier investment by AnaCap helped to fuel platform growth and product development. KKR is said to be committed to supporting heidelpay in expanding its market share across the payments value chain, both organically and through strategic M&A, continuing the buy-and-build strategy initiated by AnaCap. KKR will also support the company´s technology platform and product innovation roadmap.
Hüllemann said they set out to become a market leader in omni-channel payment processing across the DACH region and with AnaCap’s powerful support they have reached this goal in a very short time frame.
“We are very excited to have attracted renowned global investor KKR to support us in the next stage of our growth journey. With its long-standing experience in financial services and technology, and its deep international network, we firmly believe that KKR will help us approaching larger customers and shaping the payment landscape globally. In my role as CEO and partner I’m looking forward to working with a fantastic management team in the next years.”
The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in Q1 of 2020.