Page 85 - TURKRptJul19

9.2.5 TMT corporate news
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Naspers’ PayU buys hotly tipped Turkish fintech company iyzico. South Africa-based Naspers’ Dutch Unit PayU on June 11 agreed to buy Turkish digital payments company Iyzico for $165mn in its biggest fintech acquisition yet. Iyzico is one of the most hotly tipped fintech start-ups in Turkey. It says it is the fastest growing fintech company in the country of 81mn. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval, with the deal expected to close in the next few months. “The acquisition will allow PayU to consolidate its position as a leader in the payments space and accelerate scale and efficiency in Turkey, where there is a huge growth opportunity for e-commerce and online payments,” the company said in a statement. It added: “Even though e- commerce in Turkey has been growing stably at over 10% each year, it is still in its infancy with a share in total sales less than 5%. The SMB [small and medium sized business] opportunity alone is significant with potential for 10x expansion over the next few years.”
3mn SMBs. There are around 3mn SMBs in Turkey, but iyzico says only a fraction of them use digital payments and e-commerce infrastructure. Founded in 2013, iyzico provides secure payments to over 300 marketplaces, with over 400,000 personal sellers of different sizes, as well as to 30,000 online merchants that use its checkout solution. iyzico serves global and local
85 TURKEY Country Report July 2019 www.intellinews.com