Fabrick, an Open Finance operating company, continues to execute its international growth and consolidation strategy in a growing market, and announces agreement to acquire finAPI GmbH, one of the leading German operators of Open Finance solutions.
The operation, subject to approval by the German and Italian supervisory authorities, is carried out through an agreement signed with SCHUFA Holding AG, from which Fabrick will acquire 75% of finAPI. The other 25% of the shares will remain with the two founders of finAPI, Dr. Florian Haagen and Dr. Martin Lacher, who will both continue to play a role in the unified entity.
The strategy aims to drive forward the innovation of European businesses by enabling new embedded finance service models. Founded in Munich in 2008 to develop solutions for the aggregation and analysis of financial data, finAPI is a pioneering force across the Open Banking, Data Intelligence, KYC, and Payments services. It serves over 350 clients, including banks, financial service providers, fintech companies, insurance companies, and software providers, not only in Germany, but also in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.
Expanding its presence beyond Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, Fabrick takes a significant step by entering into the strategically important DACH region. This move not only establishes Fabrick’s leadership in Germany, but also solidifies its position as one of the key players in Europe’s burgeoning Open Finance segment for services provided.
With a collective client base exceeding 800 and the combination of the volume of Account2Account payments managed by Fabrick and finAPI in 2023, the total value of payments traded is over 65 billion euros and more than 11 billion API calls, solidifying Fabrick’s position as the leading operator in the two reference markets of Italy and Germany.
These numbers are of particular importance considering that payments and their digital evolution represent the most significant component in setting up new service models and B2B and B2B2C relationships. Acutely aware of the growing demand for secure and flexible transactions, European businesses across a range of sectors are increasingly adopting Embedded Finance models to deliver economic efficiency within their organisation, while simultaneously offering a seamless payment experience for their customers.
Since its inception, Fabrick has positioned payment services as a key driver of growth. Leveraging its expertise, proprietary platform, and targeted acquisition strategy, Fabrick has successfully strengthened its unique market positioning. Establishing itself at the intersection of Open Banking and Open Payments, Fabrick has gained a vantage point that oversees the entire service chain, differentiating itself from competitors focused on vertical segments.
Ultimately, Fabrick’s expansion across the payments world, alongside the enlargement of its geographical footprint, have sharpened the company’s competitive edge in the rapidly growing Embedded Finance market.
Paolo Zaccardi, CEO of Fabrick, stated: "This agreement to acquire finAPI, following the recent capital increase with Mastercard and Gruppo Reale Mutua and the acquisition of JudoPay in the United Kingdom, represents another significant milestone for Fabrick, enabling the proliferation of the internationalisation strategy defined since our inception. It allows us to enter the DACH Region, an area of strategic importance in allowing us to scale up our operations and seize the growing opportunities offered by the sector in which we operate. This operation is also a further step in expanding our offering, which now covers the entire value chain of Open Finance services."
The strategic importance of the German market is also confirmed by the results of the study "Embrace Embedded Finance For Seamless Payment Success: A Spotlight On Europe," conducted by Forrester Consulting for Fabrick. Of the 126 German decision-makers and managers interviewed, 74% stated they would invest or increase investments in payment acceptance solutions in the next 24 months. Specifically, 77% of the sample said that they will assign a high priority to payment orchestration solutions and 71% to solutions for accepting account-to-account payments via API.
The combined portfolio of finAPI and Fabrick will offer customers a wider range of centralised digital solutions. In particular, finAPI's customers will benefit from this merger, thanks to the European coverage and Fabrick’s extensive portfolio of payment solutions.
Tanja Birkholz, CEO of SCHUFA, stated: "Over the past three years, we have worked intensively with the goal of creating the greatest possible value for individuals and businesses. Technology plays an important role in developing customer-oriented products and services, and this requires strong partners capable of focusing on technological development. In this sense, Fabrick represents the ideal partner for the further development of finAPI. We know the needs of our customers, and Fabrick and finAPI possess the technological know-how to meet them, allowing them to benefit from further product developments in the field of Open Banking."
Florian Haagen, CEO and Co-founder of finAPI, stated: "The operation with Fabrick, characterised by its European approach, offers great opportunities for all. Together with the German market business, we will continue to actively shape the future of Open Finance in Europe."
The transaction remains subject to approval by the German and Italian supervisory authorities. finAPI will remain regulated in Germany and will continue its strategic collaboration with SCHUFA for the development of Open Finance in the German market.
Drake Star Partners and White & Case supported SCHUFA as advisors and legal, while Fabrick was assisted by Chiomenti and Gleiss Lutz for legal matters and Deloitte Financial Advisory for due diligence.
