The fintechs, which work in ecommerce payment solutions, will eventually be legally joined under the Payplug brand (losing the second capital P). It has almost 400 employees, boasts 20,000 customers and handles a transaction volume of almost EUR 10 billion annually. The new entity will come under the Digital & Payments division of BPCE.
Antoine Grimaud, CEO of Payplug, said, according to BPCE’s press release, that the entity aimed ‘to become the reference partner for merchants, e-merchants, SMEs and large groups in France but also in Europe.’
Pierre-Antoine Vacheron, Chief Payments Officer of BPCE, said that it was an ‘important step [for BPCE] in its strategy to offer merchants, directly or via the Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Epargne networks, a leading French alternative for the digitalization of commerce.’ The press release noted the ‘complementary expertise’ of the two payment specialists, with Dalenys’ focusing more on infrastructure, and Payplug focusing more on the user experience.
The target markets, too, are complementary. Founded in 2012, PayPlug was a French fintech which offered SMEs an online payments platform, which allowed merchants to accept credit cards in-store and online.
Dalenys, which was founded in 2002, was a digital payments specialist which targeted major e-merchants and digital brands (e.g. Maisons du Monde and Kiwi.com).
Both companies were acquired by BPCE in 2017.
In July 2022, Dalenys had announced a partnership with payments orchestration platform BlueSnap, a move that enabled BlueSnap’s French clients (businesses) to ‘process digital payments as a local transaction,’ as explained by the press release.
In March 2022, PayPlug partnered with payment software editor Amadis to deploy its nexo-based payment acceptance application, both on Android SoftPOS devices and a range of payment terminals.
Also in July 2022, salary benefits specialist Swile acquired BPCE’s subsidiary Bimpli (which manages employees benefits via an app), with BPCE continuing to hold a 22% stake in Bimpli.
In August 2022, BPCE reported a 5.5% rise in net banking income, to a total of EUR 13.1 billion. It also reported, for the second quarter, a 3.6% increase in revenue to EUR 6.6 billion.
A 2020 report from New Alpha Asset Management and Exton Consulting found that paytechs continued to play a vital role in the French fintech landscape in the previous year, making up over 20% of startups in 2019, and that they were ‘also the most dynamic segment [of the fintech market] over the past year.’
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