Page 12 - bne_Tech_10_2020

Fintech & E-commerce
October 2020 www.intellinews.com I Page 12
Private equity firm Mediterra takes majority stake in Turkish fintech provider PayCore
Mediterra Capital is expanding its portfolio with
a big new investment that will give the top Turkish private equity firm a stake in Turkey’s fast-growing digital payments sector, PYMNTS has reported.
On October 14, Mediterra announced a share purchase agreement that gives it a majority stake in PayCore, one of Turkey’s leading providers of payments software and platforms. The closing
of the deal is subject to regulatory approval, the companies noted, with no timeline given.
Launched in 2001, PayCore has reportedly been pushing to expand globally from its home base
in Turkey, having acquired Mastercard Payment Transaction Services Turkey Bilisim Hizmetleri, which has a footprint that extends to more than 12 countries.
More than a million POS terminals in Turkey operate with software developed and provided by PayCore, according to the company. In addition, PayCore software helps facilitate 60% of all credit card transactions in Turkey, the company was cited as saying.
There is growing interest in digital payments among Turkey’s relatively young population. Roughly half the country’s citizens are under 30 years-old.
As many as 56% of Turkish consumers have made a mobile payment at one point or another, compared to just a quarter in France and 23% in Germany, an ING study quoted by PYMNTS found. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been pushing for the country’s central bank to introduce its own digital currency.
“Increasing domestic and foreign investment into Turkey’s financial technology sector, along with a higher-than-average acceptance of payment cards and [a] tech-savvy population, makes for an economy that is ready to transition to becoming cashless,” H. Bader Arslan, secretary-# general of the Turkish Exporters Assembly, said in a piece in Finance Digest.
Turkish consumers are, however, not quite ready to completely give up on cash, Soner Canko, CEO of Turkish bank consortium Bankalararasi Kart Merkezi, told PYMNTS.
Yandex.Market lays out its strategy for the future
Russia’s leading e-commerce companies have reached critical mass and are in the process of creating a new economy that will shift much of Russia’s GDP into the cloud.
In the last months the big three – Ozon, Yandex and Sberbank – have announced plans that accelerate
and crystalise their businesses going from sites that just sell things to entire ecosystems that become a market in their own right.
A string of deals has been announced and, in Ozon’s case, an IPO is on the cards later this year to raise more money to pay for the work.