Portmone is a Ukrainian interbank payment system, one of the largest players in the market, founded by Igor Gorin in 2002. In 2013, the company was acquired by Dragon Capital investment company. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed at that time. Sources in the market said that the asset was most likely acquired for further resale, which occurred in 2021.
According to official information, the buyer of Portmone Group was Kaspi Pay, which is owned by Kaspi.kz, the largest fintech company in Kazakhstan. Kaspi.kz positions itself as a Super App, one application offering dozens of different features: a payment system, banking products, a marketplace, etc.
In October 2021, Kaspi.kz held an IPO in London, during which it raised $870 million, and its capitalization reached $6.5 billion. Today, the capitalization of Kaspi.kz has grown to $13 billion due to the growth of financial indicators, and the company’s business is expanding — including geographically. The new country targeted for expansion is Ukraine.
The parties do not disclose the terms of the deal — it is only known that Kaspi.kz acquires 100% of the business from the current owner. The transaction is planned to be closed by the end of 2021. The deal will allow Kaspi.kz to immediately obtain licenses to work with Visa and Mastercard in Ukraine, which are already the partners of Portmone.
The amount of the deal was not disclosed, but Ukrainian industry insiders say that Portmone could cost Kazakhstan’s fintech giant anywhere between $10-15 million.
Notably, Kaspi.kz also considers Ukraine as a potential place to hire developers and launch an IT hub in the future.
