Santander acquires 50.1% of Ebury for £350 million

Banco Santander today announced a strategic investment in Ebury, the best-in-class trade and foreign exchange facilitator for small and medium-sized companies, for £350 million (approximately €400 million). The investment, which fits Santander’s digital strategy of accelerating growth through new ventures, will strengthen its Global Trade Services offer and further consolidate Santander’s position as the bank of choice for SMEs trading or aspiring to trade internationally in its markets across Europe and the Americas, and in Asia later on. Ebury, which operates in 19 countries and 140 currencies, has generated consistent average annual revenue growth of 40% in the last three years.

UK-based Ebury operates on a unique worldwide distribution platform underpinned by a data driven business model and offers best-in-class customer experience and product capabilities. The partnership will enable Ebury to improve its value proposition, supported by a leading financial institution. Santander serves more than four million SME clients worldwide, of which more than 200,000 do international business.

Ana Botín, Group Executive Chairman of Banco Santander, said:

Small and medium-sized businesses are a major engine of growth around the world, creating new jobs and contributing up to 60% of total employment and up to 40% of national GDP in emerging economies. SMEs are becoming increasingly global and Santander is the best positioned bank to play a leading role to help them access global trade finance. By partnering with Ebury, Santander will deliver faster and more efficient products and services for SMEs, previously only accessible to larger corporates.

Juan Lobato and Salvador García, co-founders of Ebury, said:

“Combining a big bank with nimble fintech means we can offer our clients the best of both worlds: they can benefit from our technology and high quality service safe in the knowledge that they are counterparty to one of the world most important financial institutions. It is an exciting time for Ebury, we have just completed our first acquisition, and the new capital from Santander and our existing shareholders will allow us to invest in new ways to serve SMEs trading internationally and continue the growth in our business while keeping our entrepreneurial culture.”

The Angel CoFund first invested in Ebury in its seed round in 2012 and has invested £1.3m in total across four funding rounds. The firm retains a shareholding of Ebury.

Tim Mills, managing director of the Angel CoFund has made the following comment:

This news starts yet another exciting phase for Ebury, which has proved itself as one of the UK’s most successful fintech startups, providing clients with exceptional access to foreign exchange and trade finance solutions. The UK is world-renowned for its fast growth fintech ecosystem and we are proud to have been an early-stage investor in one of the market leaders. The Ebury team has achieved a huge amount in terms of innovation, international expansion and revenue growth since we first invested in 2012, and have consequently delivered substantial realised value growth for investors. The story continues with this most recent, most significant backing from Santander, and I anticipate many more achievements will flow from this complementary partnership.

Manoj Ranaweera

Manoj has founded, failed and successfully exited from a number of technology product companies as well as support organisations since 2004. Among them, Northern Tech Awards and edocr.com were acquired by GP Bullhound and Accusoft, Inc respectively. Today, Manoj is building a trusted support network for technology companies. He is working with founding teams to help them accelerate including raising investment and M&A.

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