Payment solutions provider Paysafe has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Peruvian alternative payments (APM) platform PagoEfectivo.

For Paysafe, this latest investment is a strategic foothold in Latin America, one of the world’s fastest-growing online markets where merchants and consumers alike are demonstrating an increased appetite for alternative payment methods and online banking solutions.

PagoEfectivo, a subsidiary of Empresa Editora El Comercio S.A., (Grupo El Comercio), is a market leader in Latin America in the provision of eCash and online banking payments that allow merchants to offer alternative payment methods (APMs) at the check-out, in turn enabling more consumers in the region, many of whom are underbanked, to transact online.

As part of the deal, the PagoEfectivo team, including CEO, Juan Fernando Villena, will join Paysafe and become part of the company’s growing global eCash and online banking solutions team.

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“I am thrilled we are announcing this acquisition. The APM market in Latin America is a thriving one and PagoEfectivo is a market leader in eCash and online banking solutions and the team also brings deep banking relationships and 140,000 distributor partnerships across Peru and Ecuador. We continue to see increasing demand from online merchants wanting to integrate the full payments offering into their check-out, be that seamless card, wallet, cash or bank transfer solutions – and to be able to do this internationally across multiple markets. Once integrated, we believe we will have the opportunity to add new revenues as we cross-sell to each other’s international merchant bases,” Udo Mueller, CEO of Paysafe’s eCash division, said.

“This acquisition reinforces our strategy of investing in, and growing our core, specialized offering in payments processing, digital wallets, eCash and online banking solutions and gives us an important, strategic foothold in Latin America; a region which is expanding fast in eCommerce in general and specifically in the specialized vertical industries such as iGaming, travel, entertainment and digital goods which are very much our sweet spot. Our cloud-based technology stack and global enterprise relationships will only help accelerate PagoEfectivo’s very strong growth. We very much look forward to welcoming the PagoEfectivo team onboard,” Philip McHugh, CEO of Paysafe, said.

“The sale of PagoEfectivo has generated high levels of interest because of PagoEfectivo’s excellent performance over recent years as well as its future growth potential. This performance is the result of the continuous growth of eCommerce in this region as well as our Group’s ability to create compelling new digital brands and products. I’m excited for the PagoEfectivo team as they embark on this next stage of their journey, now as part of a specialized payments company that is investing in alternative payments around the world. On behalf of the entire Grupo El Comercio team, we wish the team all the very best for the future; I believe this sale will be a success story for all concerned,” Mariano Nejamkis, Grupo El Comercio’s General Manager of Press and Digital Businesses, said.

Estudio Rodrigo is serving as Paysafe’s legal and regulatory counsel on the acquisition. The transaction is expected to close by the end of August, subject to customary closing conditions. Until then, the two groups will continue to operate as independent organizations. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.