Polish Payment Standard (PPS), operator of mobile payment system BLIK, announced on Monday that it has acquired VIAMO, a P2P payment service based out of Bratislava.Â
The terms of the deal, which still require the approval of the central bank of Slovakia, Národná banka Slovenska (NBS), have not been disclosed.
With the VIAMO acquisition, the Warsaw-based company aims to expand its footprint internationally.
Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, President of the Polish Payment Standard, BLIK operator, says, “BLIK is widely known as a comprehensive payment system on the Polish market. Today, over 11.3M customers are actively used by this solution, which is growing with each subsequent quarter. We have gained enormous knowledge, which we want to use also for development outside our country. We started establishing partnerships with global payment service providers two years ago. The acquisition of the Slovak company VIAMO is another important step for us, strengthening our position in the region. We see a huge potential in this market, especially in the context of our action plans throughout the Euro area.”
VIAMO: What you need to know
Based out of Bratislava, VIAMO has offered P2P payments since 2013 across the country. The Slovakian firm provides business payment services backed by QR codes and payment links. The company is also a payment gateway provider through VIAMO PayGate.
Currently, the company works with two banks – Tatra banka (member of RBI Group) and VÚB (member of Intesa Sanpaolo Group) – and has almost 300,000 active users.
Lubo Požgay, CEO of VIAMO, says, “We are constantly developing and establishing partnerships that attract more and more users to our service. Already, nearly 300,000 people use our applications and services. However, we want to achieve more and increase the scale of our operations. Therefore, we have no doubts that BLIK’s unique and successful competencies, especially in the field of e-commerce and capital support, will significantly make VIAMO’s offer on the Slovak market much more attractive and allow for expansion in other euro area countries. Furthermore, we have just gained a reliable partner who, having the appropriate know-how and understanding of the specifics of our business, will help us get ahead.”
Polish Payment Standard: What you need to know
Polish Payment Standard (PPS) is a company formed by the six biggest Polish banks – Alior Bank, Bank Millennium, Bank Zachodni WBK, mBank, ING Bank, and PKO Bank Polski.
PPS provides customers with a mobile payment service – BLIK.
The payment solution enables customers to make e-commerce and retail payments, withdraw cash from ATMs, and send transfers to other customers using the system.
