Crastorehill, a company majority owned by Finch Capital, Europe‘s growth investor, has successfully acquired open banking players “as part of their buy-and-build strategy.”
This move positions Crastorehill as “the 100% shareholder of Qwist (formerly finleap connect) and ndgit, harnessing their complementary strengths to lead the way in the future of open banking.”
Crastorehill’s strategy drives the rise of “a second wave of value creation within the open banking market with the delivery and adoption of open banking enabled use cases.”
The surge will be accelerated by “the PSD3 regulation, an advancement of PSD2, which improves consumer protection and therefore heightens ability to deliver innovative market offerings. This evolution and proliferation of open banking based products will deliver real consumer value and thereby create business value.”
Based on this outlook, Crastorehill has strategically “acquired two prominent players in the open banking field, Qwist and ndgit, aiming to leverage their combined strengths and reinforce their position in this burgeoning market.”
Crastorehill will be managed by its newly announced CEO, Matt Colebourne.
Matt Colebourne said:
“Open standards, in almost any technological or regulated area, create the opportunity to solve previously insoluble problems, to do things faster, more easily and more cheaply. Much as the internet ushered in a previously inconceivable plethora of new ways to interact, transact and research, the rise of open banking will enable new ways to assess risk, verify identity, understand macro-economic behaviour and enable faster, easier interaction for consumers. I’m excited to join Crastorehill at a time when we have the opportunity to lead this transformation and grow.”
Oliver Dlugosch, CEO of ndgit, welcomes the synergies that emerge from operating under one umbrella:
“The strength of having ndgit and Qwist within the same group and in one holding is a significant milestone. Together we are the foremost open banking player in the local market in terms of revenue and breadth of services. It enhances our market position and empowers us to offer a more comprehensive suite of services to our existing and potential customers.”
Nicola Breyer, CEO of Qwist views the joint value proposition the two companies will be able to offer as a significant step, marking the successful culmination of Qwist’s transformation over the past year:
“Our shift from finleap connect to Qwist as a high quality open banking solutions provider has created a solid foundation for this promising partnership. Our wealth of experience as a regulated company with over 11 years of experience in the market will be of great value to the new collaboration, which will now enable us to offer the full value chain of services from API build and compliance to high end data analytics. I am very much looking forward to continuing our journey with competent and influential partners and team members by our side.”
Starting today, the operations under one roof are “officially underway.”
In the coming months, Matt Colebourne, the newly appointed Managing Director of Crastorehill, will “work closely with the leadership of both companies to explore potential areas of synergy.”