GoCardless has entered an agreement to acquire Sentenial & Nuapay

EML Payments Limited has entered into an agreement to sell the Sentenial Group (operating globally under the brand Nuapay) to GoCardless, subject to regulatory approvals. 

The acquisition will significantly scale GoCardless’ indirect channel proposition, consolidating its position as a key payment provider to existing and new customer segments including Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Payment Service Providers (PSPs). 

In addition, by incorporating Nuapay’s offering into its bank payment platform, GoCardless will fast-track the rollout of new disbursement capabilities to its customers and prospects. 

This will enable GoCardless to unlock new vertical sectors and use cases in areas including payroll, financial services, utilities, insurance, gaming and gambling. Businesses and partners will benefit from a full-service provider with a relentless focus on bank payments, enabling disbursements and payment collection through direct debit, real-time payments and open banking, alongside enhanced features for improving payment success and reducing fraud.  
For Sentenial staff, our clients, and partners, it remains business as usual through this transition.  More details will follow soon for all those involved in this process. 

Co-Founder and CEO of Nuapay, Brian Hanrahan, commented: 

“GoCardless is an exceptional business that shares our belief that account-to-account payments and open banking are in the process of transforming how the world pays and gets paid.

This acquisition will result in a combined organisation with deep domestic and international payments and open banking expertise plus the scale to harness these opportunities for our clients and partners.

It is business as usual for our people and customers, and all of our employees will transition to GoCardless.”

Co-founder and CEO of GoCardless, Hiroki Takeuchi, said:

“Nuapay is an established account-to-account payment provider and open banking specialist with a blue-chip customer base. Its business is perfectly aligned to our growth strategy, and will accelerate our vision to become the world’s bank payment network.”

The Sale is subject to approval from the French and United Kingdom financial regulators: L’Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution and the Financial Conduct Authority respectively, which are presently expected to be completed within 3 to 6 months.