Open banking platform Tink has announced that the online payments giant PayPal is joining Tink as a strategic investor. The partnership got off to a fast start with a €10 million investment from PayPal in the Stockholm-based FinTech firm.
Tink’s Technology Leads the Way
The news that PayPal is joining the Tink team as a customer and investor comes off the back of a €56 million Series D investment that was announced in February. The financing that time came from investors including New York City-based Insight Venture Partners, among many others.
The startup’s biggest funding to date gave Tink an estimated post-money valuation of €240 million. However, this figure is likely to rise given the news of PayPal’s involvement with the company.
Originally launched in 2012 as a consumer finance app, Tink has become a platform that offers bank account aggregation technology and more to banks and other financial services involved with open banking and PSD2.
Tink’s four main selling points centre on its technology. The company provides account aggregation, payment initiation, personal finance management, and data enrichment. These four features can be used by third parties in their own standalone apps or integrated into existing banking applications.
PayPal Partnership
PayPal’s investment in the Swedish FinTech naturally has benefits for both parties. PayPal will gain access to Tink’s account aggregation technology, so that it can “improve the product experiences” for its customers. On the other side, Tink says that the investment will enable the company to continue its European expansion. The plan is to extend the reach of its open banking technology and to “develop the next generation of financial services.”
Jennifer Marriner, VP of global markets and partnerships at PayPal, said about the partnership: “Open banking is transforming financial services, allowing customers to more easily move and manage their money. Tink has developed the infrastructure and data services for this new financial world – and we’re excited to work together to continue to democratise financial services.”
At its Stockholm headquarters, Tink currently employs 150 people. The company has recently opened an office in London, and hopes to open four more across Europe this year.
Boasting a client base consisting of firms such as BNP Paribas Fortis, Klarna and SEB, Tink also hopes to use the new funds to expand to 20 markets by the year’s end. This will include developing new customer partnerships ranging from “big banks to individual developers.”
Tink clearly has big ambitions, and wants to become a leader in the European open banking industry. Through its partnership with PayPal, the FinTech is well on the way to realising that goal.