PaySafe acquires SafetyPay for $441m

Latin America’s fintech sector has witnessed significant expansion in recent times, as tech-enabled payment startups in the region continue to explore the growth opportunity presented by its vast unbanked or underbanked population.

The negligence of traditional financial institutions has opened up a gap for both local and foreign fintech players to fill. For this reason, Europe and US-based players who are looking to expand their international market presence see Latin America as a viable market.

The most recent foreign player to do so is Paysafe, a UK-headquartered payments firm, which recently paid US$441m to acquire LatAm-based remittance platform SafetyPay.

Paysafe judged SafetyPay as a viable acquisition because of its track record of steady growth and expansion since it first launched in 2007. 

From its inception to date, Safetypay has established a strong presence in 11 countries across Latin America.

“We are very excited to welcome SafetyPay into the Paysafe family,” said Philip McHugh, CEO of Paysafe. “The team has successfully built a market-leading payment platform that has become the de-facto open banking solution for Latin America.”