Payment firm izettle eyes fresh UK deals

Izettle, the Swedish payments services business that last year acquired Edinburgh-based Intelligentpos, is eyeing further acquisitions in the UK as it lays the groundwork for a stock market debut.

Intelligentpos was bought in August 2016 by izettle, taking on the latter’s name in early 2017 and changing its product name to izettle Pro in October.

The electronic point-of-sale app is now present in several overseas markets following success in the UK, including Germany, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Spain and Mexico.

Jacob de Geer, the co-founder and chief executive of the Swedish parent company, said: “We’re always on the hunt for more acquisitions and the reason being that it’s pretty clear that the need from the business segment, the merchant segment that we’re going after, is massive.

“It makes sense to scout for companies across all our different markets, but obviously London is a good place to start.”

There is also scope to at least double its UK employee base – with about 40 staff currently in London and 70 now in Edinburgh – assuming the impact of Brexit is minimal.

“In say five years – we’d probably have an office here of around 200-plus people. Only time will tell and it depends on what Brexit will actually imply for us as a company,” noted de Geer.

Robin Knox, MD at izettle Edinburgh, said recently: “Since we were acquired by izettle we’ve been going great guns. Joining the company gave us the resources needed to export our product.” 0 Robin Knox is co-founder of Intelligentpos