Financial services firm Visa Europe followed up its partnership with UK-based payment technology company Monitise by investing £24.7m ($39.4m) in funding on Monday, obtaining an 8.8% stake in return.
Monitise and Visa Europe formed a strategic partnership in February to develop and supply mobile payments technology for Visa’s European member banks and financial institutions. The two have since devised the Visa Mobile Person-to-Person payments and Visa Alerts services for customers banking on mobile devices.
The financing follows the £32.4m of funding raised by Monitise in July 2010 from investors including the Visa International Service Association and venture capital firm First Eastern Holdings.
Monitise plans to use the Visa Europe investment to expand its mobile commerce expertise, and increase its presence in the India and Asia-Pacific regions, as well as in emerging markets.
In addition, Monitise has agreed to aquire the remaining 51% stake in Monitise Americas currently held by financial services firm the Metavante Corporation, a division of financial technology corporation Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), for $15m. In return for the 51% stake, Metavante will acquire a 3.3% stake in Monitise.
Monitise Americas was formed in 2007 as a joint venture between Monitise and FIS and currently provides mobile banking services to 250 financial institutions around the US. The acquistion mirrors Monitise’s whole acquisition of Monilink, its joint UK-based venture with VocaLink, in 2009.