GoCardless to acquire open banking platform Nordigen, combining broad open banking connectivity with bank payment expertise

01 July 2022

LONDON, and RIGA, LATVIA, 1 July, 2022 -- GoCardless, the global leader in direct bank payments, has announced it plans to acquire Nordigen, the freemium open banking data provider, as it builds on its vision to become the world’s bank payment network. GoCardless will incorporate Nordigen’s next-generation open banking connectivity -- offering the widest coverage in Europe, connecting to more than 2,300 banks in 31 countries -- into its account-to-account network.

The acquisition means the fintech will now provide free open banking connectivity at scale, opening up self-serve access to account information services (AIS) to everyone. In addition, its suite of premium data products help improve outcomes across a range of use cases from credit assessments to customer engagement.

The announcement is the latest move from GoCardless as it accelerates its open banking strategy. Over the past 18 months it has launched its open banking-enabled Instant Bank Pay feature across multiple markets, as well as Verified Mandates, which combines AIS with direct debit to prevent fraud. This deal will enable GoCardless to acquire in-house open banking connectivity, which it plans to build on in the near future by expanding coverage and adding new payment types such as Variable Recurring Payments.

Over the past few years it’s been amazing to watch open banking grow from a trend on the horizon to a global phenomenon which has given rise to a market worth over $400 billion. We realised early on that this technology would drive bank payments for decades to come and over the last 18 months, we’ve accelerated our push into open banking as part of our vision to build the world’s bank payment network. The Nordigen acquisition will take us to the next level. By intelligently combining free, state-of-the-art open banking connectivity with deep payment expertise, we can now offer open banking-as-a-service to any developer, partner or fintech. We believe this open access will lead to experimentation, and that will create even more compelling use cases. We’re excited to redefine what open banking can do with the talented Nordigen team now on board.

Hiroki Takeuchi, co-founder and CEO of GoCardless

At Nordigen our mission is to help businesses around the world adopt and utilise open banking, enabling greater financial transparency and financial inclusion. We share GoCardless’s excitement about the growth of open banking, and we’re delighted to join forces with a group of people who not only share our passion for driving game-changing innovation in financial services, but will also help us bring free open banking access to a far wider audience.

Rolands Mesters, CEO Of Nordigen

Back in 2021, Black Pears VC co-led Nordigen's investment round. Since then the company successfully launched a freemium open banking platform democratizing access to open banking while providing connectivity to over 2300 banks across Europe.

Connecting to over 2300+ banks in 31 countries Nordigen has created a state-of-the-art connectivity platform that allows developers, fintechs and SMEs to build the next use cases of open banking. Having led Nordigen's last investment round in 2021, it was a great pleasure to work with Rolands, Roberts, Jake and the team. We are incredibly impressed by their speed of execution and proud to have been a part of this journey together with other co-investors. We're looking forward to what the future holds for Nordigen as it becomes a platform of truly global reach with the help of GoCardless bank payment network.

Aleksander Dobrzyniecki, Board Member of Nordigen, Partner at Black Pearls VC

The deal is expected to close later in the summer. Further terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

About GoCardless

GoCardless is a global leader in direct bank payment solutions, making it easy to collect both recurring and one-off payments directly from customers' bank accounts through direct debit and open banking. The GoCardless global payments network and technology platform take the pain out of getting paid for 70,000 businesses worldwide, from multinational corporations to small businesses. Each year GoCardless processes over US$30 billion of payments across more than 30 countries. GoCardless is headquartered in the UK, with additional offices in Australia, France, Germany and the United States. For more information, please visit www.gocardless.com and follow us on Twitter @GoCardless.

© 2022 GoCardless Ltd. All Rights Reserved. GoCardless is a registered trademark of GoCardless Ltd in multiple countries. Third party trademarks mentioned above are owned by their respective companies. Unless explicitly identified as such, nothing in this press release should be construed to the contrary, or as an approval, endorsement or sponsorship by any third parties of GoCardless Ltd. or any aspect of this press release.

About Nordigen

Nordigen is a freemium open banking platform that provides free access to open banking data and premium data insights. Nordigen's free API connects to more than 2,300 banks in Europe and serves fintech companies and developers in 31 European countries, including the UK. Nordigen is a licensed Account Information Service Provider (AISP), regulated by the Financial and Capital Market Commission of Latvia and authorised in 31 European countries.

About Black Pearls VC

Black Pearls VC is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on supporting the leading tech companies from the Baltic Sea Region. It invests in early-stage with a typical ticket of anywhere between €100k - €1m. Black Pearls VC is a part of the Kauffman Fellows, a global network of +500 leading VCs.