• Getsafe acquired Luko Insurance’s Germany-based customers.
• The acquisition includes 50,000 policies and boosts Getsafe’s total client roster to 550,000 customers.
• Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Germany-based Getsafe announced this week it has acquired Luko Insurance’s German customer base, which includes 50,000 policies. Terms of the deal, which was approved by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) in late September, were not disclosed.

Adding Luko’s clients to its own roster, Getsafe now counts 550,000 customers across Germany, the U.K., France, and Austria. Integrating Luko’s clients, which was, as Getsafe CEO and founder explained was “as easy for us as launching a new product,” bolsters Getsafe’s European portfolio.

“Traditional insurance is broken for digitally savvy customers. They would never step into a broker’s office,” said Getsafe CEO and founder Christian Wiens. “We aim to become the go-to platform for 100 million young Europeans who will spend €300 billion on insurance in the next decade.”

Getsafe’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) model, which targets Europeans between 20 to 40 years old, offers liability, legal, drone, contents, health, dental, dog liability, pet health, private pension, and income protection insurance, as well as a children’s savings plan. This DTC model has proven compelling to users. Of the company’s customers, 35% use the app every month, an engagement rate that has resulted in strong growth. In fact, since Getsafe was founded in 2015, the company has doubled its revenue per customer every year.

“By eliminating intermediaries such as brokers and agents, we achieve much higher customer satisfaction scores than the industry average,” Wiens explained. “Additionally, our direct-to-consumer business runs with higher margins and is already operating profitably in our core markets.”

The deal comes four months after France-based Luko was bought by insurance giant Admiral Group, which acquired all but Luko’s German or Spanish operations.

Photo by Vojtech Okenka

• Upgrade is acquiring travel-focused BNPL company Uplift for $100 million.
• The company will use the purchase to build on its existing BNPL offerings.
• Uplift had raised $700 million and was reportedly valued at $195 million during its 2019 Series C round.

Alternative credit provider and digital bank Upgrade made its first acquisition today. The seven year old fintech announced it has purchased buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Uplift for $100 million.

Uplift was founded in 2014 to serve as a BNPL option for U.S. and Canadian consumers at the point-of-sale when booking travel experiences at 300 major travel brands ranging from airlines to cruise companies to resorts. By selecting Uplift at the point-of-sale when booking their travel online, the company’s 3.3 million users can spread the cost of their purchase across multiple months and repay in fixed installments.

Upgrade offers personal loans and digital banking tools including credit cards, checking accounts, and savings accounts. While it doesn’t offer any BNPL tools, the company says its credit cards “combine the flexibility of a credit card with the predictability of a personal loan.”

Upgrade will use today’s acquisition to build its presence in the BNPL space. The company states that travel financing fits within its strategy of making credit available at the point of sale to finance “meaningful expenses.” Upgrade currently focuses on helping its users finance practical expenses such as buying a car or making home improvements, and –with Uplift’s expertise– will be able to enter the travel vertical, as well.

As Upgrade Cofounder and CEO Renaud Laplanche explained, “The Uplift team has established the company as the leading BNPL provider in the travel industry, and we look forward to combining forces to make travel more accessible and affordable for millions of consumers, and over time implement similar solutions in adjacent parts of our customers’ lives.”

Prior to today’s acquisition, Uplift had raised $700 million in combined debt and equity and was reportedly valued at $195 million during its 2019 Series C round.

Headquartered in California with an operations center in Arizona and a technology center in Canada, Upgrade is partnered with Cross River Bank and Blue Ridge Bank for credit lines and banking services, NYDIG for Bitcoin rewards, and Sutton Bank for card issuance. The company has delivered $24 billion in credit via its cards and loans since 2017.

Photo by Pixabay

• The European Payments Initiative (EPI) acquired two payments companies– Currence-owned payment solution iDEAL and payment solutions provider Payconiq.
• EPI will leverage the new acquisitions to build a unified payment solution for Europe. 
• The unified payment scheme will begin by offering P2P payments by the end of 2023 across France and Germany.

Payments solutions initiative European Payments Initiative (EPI) announced it has acquired two payments companies and has simultaneously unveiled plans to launch an instant payments solution for Europe.

EPI is purchasing Currence-owned payment solution iDEAL and payment solutions provider Payconiq International (PQI) for undisclosed amounts. The three companies are joining forces to organize EPI’s unified payment solution for Europe. 

“EPI will leverage the strong operational experience, know-how and local market knowledge of these companies,” said EPI CEO Martina Weimert. “We are developing a new, scalable platform to address the modern and evolving payment needs of European consumers and merchants in the best possible way, with efficient, state-of-the-art technology.”

Based in the Netherlands, iDEAL is the region’s major payment scheme. In fact, iDEAL’s payment scheme operator, Currence, counts all major Dutch banks as members. In the Netherlands, 55% of online transactions use iDEAL to facilitate payments. iDEAL was first launched in 2005 and was revamped 15 years later in 2020 to accommodate for the growth of ecommerce transactions and updated consumer expectations.

Founded in 2014, PQI offers a mobile payment platform that can be used in-store, online, and for peer-to-peer money transfers. With headquarters in Amsterdam, the company operates in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg.

Both iDEAL and PQI will help build the EPI digital wallet solution that will offer instant, account-to-account payments under a single brand for users in all European countries. The unified payment scheme will begin by offering P2P payments by the end of 2023 across France and Germany. In the future, EPI will also offer person-to-professional (P2Pro) payments followed by ecommerce and point-of-sale payments. The scheme will support one-off payments, subscriptions, installments, payments upon delivery, and reservations. Over time, EPI will add in more services such as buy now, pay later, digital identity features, and merchant loyalty and rewards. 

The scheme has a diverse set of shareholders, including BFCM, BNP Paribas, BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, DSGV, ING, KBC, La Banque Postale, Nexi, Société Générale, and Worldline. Also worth noting are the newest members. Belfius and DZ Bank joined in 2022, and today, ABN Amro and Rabobank are joining as well.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska