Irish firm to target Middle East deals

Finch Capital launches Dublin-based vehicle to acquire and invest in fintech businesses

Finch has acquired Wirecard Turkey, a division of the collapsed German payments giant. Photograph by Alex Kraus/Bloomberg

Jonathan Keane

April 04 2021 02:30 AM

Finch Capital, a Dutch venture capital firm, has established a Dublin-based vehicle to acquire and invest in fintech businesses in Turkey and the Middle East.

The firm has acquired Wirecard Turkey, a division of the collapsed German payments giant, through its newly created Nomu Pay.

Nomu, meaning growth in Arabic, has been set up and is fully funded by Finch Capital to invest in payments and fintech operations in the region.

“We would like to invest into more companies in the region,” said Radboud Vlaar, managing partner at Finch Capital.

"We have invested in a similar model of buying and organic growth from Dublin, called Supply Finance.

“We have a couple of great entrepreneurs with payment experience that work with us from Ireland to make this a success, hence Ireland.”

Vlaar said there is a significant opportunity to expand the digital payments services in the Middle East and Nomu will be seeking further acquisition deals in these markets.

The Wirecard Turkey deal is expected to close in the summer months, pending regulatory approval.

Germany’s Wirecard collapsed last year after a €1.9bn accounting scandal that is currently being investigated by authorities in Germany. Its former chief operating officer Jan Marsalek is on the run.

Since then, the company’s various subsidiaries and assets have been sold off.

Some corporate card assets of Wirecard UK & Ireland, an Irish-based subsidiary, were acquired last October by Bulgarian payments company Paynetics.

Finch Capital is a regular investor in Ireland. Earlier this year it partnered with Enterprise Ireland on a new €20m fund that will back fintech startups.

In February it invested €5.8m in Dublin’s AccountsIQ, a financial management software company.

The firm has also backed fintech business Supply Finance and Dublin-based artificial intelligence start-up Aylien, leading its €5m round in 2019.