Papara Acquires Spanish Rebellion As Valuation Hits $1 Billion
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Papara, a neobank based in Turkey, has announced the acquisition of its Spanish rival known as Rebellion. The acquisition will see Papara gain the status of a fintech unicorn, and it is the first-ever acquisition by the company.
Papara acquires Rebellion
The acquisition will bring the total valuation of the company to $1 billion, which is a significant value for the company. Papara has managed to grow its business organically without any external investments, with the firm having been profitable since 2017.
The acquisition deal is part of the expansion plans by the company in Europe, and it comes at a time when the fintech has reported significant growth over the last 12 months. The Turkish fintech has grown its user base significantly by over 25%, and it now has more than 16 million users.
Papara currently wants to create a robust presence beyond the home market, starting with Spain. The company shared a statement saying that it was confident in its products, services, and vision, adding that it had the potential to compete on a global level.
As part of this deal, the current employees at Rebellion will join the Papara team. The chairman and founder of Papara, Ahmed Karsli, said that the company was focused on financial inclusion. The company also wanted to execute its ambitious global strategy.
“The business and team stood out to us for a number of reasons – primarily its unrivalled local market knowledge, best-in-class products and, most importantly, alignment of goals to our own. We look forward to working with their talented team and building on Rebellion’s local market success,” Karsli said.
The co-founder of Rebellion, Sergio Cerro, said that the acquisition presented a unique opportunity for the company to launch a project that aligned with the neo-banking market in Spain. Cerro has also said that the lack of a dominant player across the Spanish industry and the current economic sector made Papara the ideal partner to blend resources, ambition, and business vision.
Papara is expanding into Europe
The Rebellion acquisition deal will trigger Papara’s expansion into Europe. Rebellion is one of the top financial apps in Europe, and it provides similar products and services to Papara. These services include cashback, money transfers, and prepaid cards.
Rebellion was founded in 2017 by Sergio Cerro and Alex Sagrado. Prior to this acquisition, the fintech had obtained a total investment of 15 million euros. According to Papara, acquiring Rebellion will give the firm a strong foothold in the fast-growing Spanish banking industry, which was comprised of impressive digital and technological innovation.
Research that was conducted by SEON said that Spain has the second-largest neobank usage across Europe. 17% of the population has an account with a challenger bank. As such, Papara will be entering a vast market of neobank users, including 250,000 customers at Rebellion.
The acquisition of Rebellion might just be the first step that Papara has taken to unlock its services in the region. Besides Spain, the other countries with a significant neobank penetration rate include Germany and the United Kingdom.
