Visa, a global payment technology giant, announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire the European open banking infrastructure platform Tink for EUR 1.8 billion (USD 2.2 billion). 

Tink will retain its brand and management team and leverage Visa’s cybersecurity and fraud prevention to enhance its infrastructure platform, accelerating the adoption of open banking in Europe. 

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. It comes on the heels of Visa calling off its planned acquisition of Plaid in January 2021 (announced in January 2020) due to regulatory challenges.

Tink has raised more than USD 300 million in funding. The most recent round secured EUR 85 million (USD 103 million) in venture funding in December 2020, valuing the company at EUR 680 million (USD 825 million). 

Tink offers an open banking infrastructure platform that connects FinTech developers to European banks through a single application programming interface (API). More than 10,000 developers had used Tink’s infrastructure platform as of April 2021. The company’s solutions include account aggregation, payment initiation, data enrichment, and personal finance management. The platform is connected to over 3,400 banks, covering more than 250 million people, with partners including NatWest, ABN AMRO, and BNP Paribas.