Kazakhstan’s large fintech acquires Portmone

Kaspi Pay, a subsidiary of the largest Kazakh fintech company Kaspi.kz, has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the Ukrainian Portmone Group.

The deal closure is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to approval by the antimonopoly authorities of Ukraine and Kazakhstan and the National Bank of Ukraine.

“With Portmone's payment licenses, we intend to introduce our payment services in the territory of Ukraine with a population of 42 million people,” Kaspi.kz said in a statement.

In Ukraine, cash payments dominate - 44% of funds are cashed out. The share of e-commerce in retail is as low as 8%, the volume of unsecured consumer lending is less than 4.5% of GDP, and the smartphone penetration rate does not exceed 70%.

Kaspi.kz operates the largest payment, marketplace and fintech ecosystem in Kazakhstan. The mobile application can be used to pay for 5000 services at no fee, to transfer money, buy goods and air tickets online, as well as apply for a loan at Kaspi Bank. 8.5 million Kazakhstanis use the application. Kaspi.kz has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2020. Revenue for the first half of 2021 is $932.9 million.

Portmone is a Ukrainian payment system. It can be used to pay for utilities and household services, make card-to-card transfers, top up the mobile balances and repay loans. The system also offers B2B products such as Internet acquiring for merchants, solutions for Internet payments and mobile payments of banks.