France-based Orange Bank has announced the acquisition of Anytime, a French neobank dedicated to independent professionals, small businesses and associations, enabling the former to address the professionals and small business market. The financial details of this deal have not been disclosed.
Aim of this acquisition
Orange Bank claims that the acquisition enables it to support the banking group’s client footprint and is fully aligned with the “core multi-service” strategy of Orange.
Anytime – now a 100 per cent subsidiary of Orange Bank, will benefit from the strength of the Orange brand among SMEs and SOHOs to scaleup its commercial reach and enhance its range of solutions for professionals. Orange Bank will work with the current management team to accelerate the development of its subsidiary.
According to Orange, it already serves millions of professional and business customers in France, who may also potentially be interested in Anytime’s offers, including startup entrepreneurs, freelancers, the self-employed, and small businesses.
Speaking about the acquisition, Damien Dupouy and Thierry Peyre, co-founders of Anytime, says, “This latest development recognises the strength of the Anytime business model, the first business-focused neobank to be profitable since 2018. This merger with Orange Bank will enable us to offer a greater range of business services (loans, insurance, payments, expert advice etc.) and benefit from the powerful Orange brand.”
Anytime’s offers will initially remain available online and will be gradually extended to other Orange channels, including its network of stores and its business salesforce. Starting in France, services will also be rolled out across Orange Bank’s other European countries.
Everything about Anytime
Founded in 2014 by Dupouy Damien and Thierry Peyre, Anytime is a neobank specifically designed for the independent professionals and small businesses market (SME, SOHO). The company claims to offer fully digital and mobile-compatible business accounts, a user-friendly and functional interface, a support hotline and clear pricing without any hidden clauses.
As claimed by the company, Anytime is one of the top three neobanks in France which has been profitable since 2018.
The current solutions provided by Anytime platform includes creating quotes and invoices, automatic account updates, enabling customer payments via a mobile or credit card, managing unpaid invoices and optimising cash flow. The company believes, with this acquisition, Orange can help them further develop the company to build a comprehensive solutions platform to help business customers manage their finances more efficiently.
“Our mission is to revolutionise access to banking services by providing everyone with a banking offer that is flexible and without constraints and that, thanks to the large range of services we offer, can adapt to anyone’s needs. Professionals, individuals, everyone finds their perfect account! For professionals, we have purposefully built Anytime in Banking-as-a-Service mode on an open API system which gives companies the capability to innovate. A strategy which radically sets us apart from all the other Fintechs on the French market,” explains Damien Dupouy.
Back in 2016, the company had raised €5M in a fresh round of funding from Seventure Partners.
About Orange Bank
Founded in late 2017, Orange Bank is a bank launched by French telecom company Orange. It claims to be one of the world’s leading telecommunications carriers with a turnover of €42B in 2019.
In December 2019, the Group presented its new “Engage 2025” strategic plan, which, guided by social and environmental accountability, aims to reinvent its operator model. While accelerating in growth areas and placing data and AI at the heart of its innovation model, the group will be an attractive and responsible employer, adapted to emerging professions. Additionally, it also plans to launch its banking services in all of its European markets by 2025.
Orange Bank currently boasts about 1.1 million customers (as of 30 September 2020) with the majority of them are from France. Its services were also launched in Spain in late 2019 and in Ivory Coast in mid-2020. Orange is listed on Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).