The archive · Money & Fintech · Product decision · 2012–2022
Tink's open-banking API bet lands a €1.8B Visa buyout
Sweden's Tink bet banks and fintechs would build on one API platform connected to thousands of banks; Visa paid €1.8B in 2021 and closed in 2022.
Tink
What the business is
Tink is a Stockholm-based open-banking platform: through one API it gives financial institutions, fintechs and merchants access to customers' bank-account data and payment initiation across Europe, so they can build aggregation, money-management and account-to-account payment products.
Starting capital：More than $300M raised from investors including PayPal, SEB and ABN AMRO (CNBC); the December 2020 round was €85M led by Dawn Capital and Eurazeo Growth (The Block).
How it started
Daniel Kjellén and Fredrik Hedberg founded Tink in Stockholm in 2012 as a personal financial-management app that aggregated users' bank accounts. As Europe's open-banking regulation took shape, they pivoted the company into selling its technology to other businesses — a platform connecting banks, fintechs and merchants.
What happened
PSD2, in force from January 2018, required European banks to give licensed third parties access to customer account data with consent, turning Tink's model into infrastructure. By June 2021 Tink connected to more than 3,400 banks, had raised over $300M from investors including PayPal, SEB and ABN AMRO, and Visa — months after abandoning its $5.3B Plaid takeover when US regulators objected — agreed to buy Tink for €1.8B (about $2.1B).
How it ended up
Visa completed the acquisition in March 2022 for approximately €1.8B, keeping Tink as a standalone subsidiary with its brand, its Stockholm headquarters and its management, led by co-founder and CEO Daniel Kjellén.
Background
Tink began in 2012, when Swedish entrepreneurs Daniel Kjellén and Fredrik Hedberg launched a Stockholm personal-finance app that pulled users' bank accounts into one view. As Europe moved toward open banking, they bet the bigger opportunity was upstream: instead of selling the app to consumers, sell the technology to banks, fintechs and merchants that needed account data and payment initiation.
The EU's PSD2, in force from January 2018, forced banks to expose customer account data to licensed third parties with consent — the regulatory wind behind Tink's model. By June 2021 the platform connected to more than 3,400 banks, the company had raised over $300M from investors including PayPal, SEB and ABN AMRO, and clients could integrate once with Tink to reach the European banking map.
The payoff came through consolidation: after US regulators torpedoed Visa's $5.3B takeover of Plaid, Visa agreed in June 2021 to acquire Tink for €1.8B (about $2.1B) and completed the purchase in March 2022, keeping Tink's brand, its Stockholm headquarters and its management led by co-founder and CEO Daniel Kjellén.
What has to be true
- Selling infrastructure created a network effect: every new bank connection made the platform more valuable to every client already on it.
- The pivot from consumer app to B2B platform put Tink where regulation pointed: PSD2 made bank data accessible, and enterprises needed a compliant way in.
- One integration instead of thousands was the wedge: fintechs could launch across Europe without negotiating with each lender separately.
- Scarcity set the price: after the Plaid deal collapsed, Visa needed a proven European open-banking leader and paid €1.8B for the network.
What can be applied
Sell the pickaxe in a gold rush: one API reaching thousands of banks became infrastructure every European open-banking player had to plug into — a network position Visa paid €1.8B to own.
Aftermath
As of March 10, 2022 Visa had completed its acquisition of Tink for approximately €1.8B; Tink operates as a standalone subsidiary of Visa, retaining its brand and its Stockholm headquarters, with co-founder Daniel Kjellén continuing as CEO. Tink said it was integrated with more than 3,400 banks reaching over 250 million bank customers across Europe, and Visa said the combination would help clients offer money-management, account-to-account payments and data-driven services.
Sources
- Visa to buy Swedish fintech Tink for $2.1 billion after abandoning Plaid takeover
- Visa to acquire Swedish open banking firm Tink for €1.8 billion
- Visa Closes Deal to Acquire European Open Banking Platform Tink for $2B
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