Tink Gets Investment From PayPal To Expand

Tink, the Swedish company that enables FinTechs to access customers’ financial data, has received an $11.2 million investment from PayPal Holdings.

Reuters, citing the companies, reported proceeds from the investment will be used for Tink to expand its team, develop new products and connect more banks. In February Tink raised $62.7 million in a round that included Insight Venture Partners and the venture capital arms of banks Nordea and ABN Amro Group NV. Tink was founded back in 2012. It has a platform that collects data from thousands of European banks, enabling FinTechs to use the data to build products and services. It has arrangements with banks such as BNP Paribas and FinTechs including Klarna.

Tink is part of a crop of FinTech players that are capitalizing on the Payments Services Directive 2, otherwise known as PSD2, which enables consumers to authorize third parties to access their banking data and make payments for them. The ability for FinTechs to more easily access the financial data of customers is expected to bring more competition in banking and thus better products and services for consumers.

“This is where the market is heading,” Tink’s chief executive and co-founder, Daniel Kjellén, told Reuters in an interview. “You see two mega trends in banking: a move from analog to digital and from closed to open.”

Tink isn’t the only one eyeing the European market. In late May Plaid, the U.S.-based FinTech that enables apps to access consumers’ financial information, announced it is entering the European market, starting with the U.K. In a blog post, Plaid said it chose the U.K. as its first foray in Europe because it has a thriving FinTech market and is among the fastest-growing sectors. According to Plaid, more than 1,600 FinTech companies came out of the U.K., which is expected to double by 2030. “As we’ve done in the U.S., Plaid will become the foundation for that growth by providing access to a financial network that allows developers to deliver the experience users expect from their financial apps,” wrote Keith Grose, international lead at Plaid.