Christmas has come early for the founders of Irish electronics payments technology company 3V, which has been acquired for €14.5m by UK payments giant SafeCharge.
Kieron Guilfoyle established 3V in Ireland 2004. The company makes technology behind disposable credit cards, gift cards and virtual vouchers.
3V’s technology has been deployed across Europe and North America and major rollouts include a virtual ticketing solution built for the 2012 Olympics for Visa Europe, O2 Money in Ireland, Orange Cash in Spain, and gift cards that can be found in leading UK supermarkets.
The company’s issuing technology, which enables merchants to accept cash online, has been rolled out across a network of more than 70,000 stores and partners.
3V’s technologies are PCI Level 1 approved and it expects to be awarded Electronic Money Institution status by the Central Bank of Ireland in 2015.
“We are pleased that SafeCharge has selected our technology and talented team in order to deliver solutions to its extensive network of merchants and channels,” Guilfoyle said.
“We are committed to the success of this acquisition and look forward to collaborating with the SafeCharge team.”
Money makes the world go round
Under the terms of the deal, SafeCharge will acquire 100pc of 3V’s share capital for US$14.5m, out of which €11.6m will be paid in cash when the deal concludes in January and the remainder will be paid out over the next three years.
As a result, 3V will become the foundation of SafeCharge’s card-issuing activities through its new Issuing Division.
“The acquisition marks a further milestone in the execution of SafeCharge’s strategic plan to enter new product verticals and deliver innovative payment technologies,” David Avgi, SafeCharge’s CEO explained.
“3V enables us to gain fast-track entry into the rapidly expanding prepaid card issuance vertical and will provide the foundation of what will become a significant new division within SafeCharge.”
Credit card image via Shutterstock
