Payments startup picks up Wirecard's pieces to enter Asia Pacific

NomuPay, a Dublin-based startup that launched at the end of 2022, is joining the growing list of companies that are taking a piece of Wirecard — which failed in 2020 following an accounting scandal — to get a leg up in a new market. 

In early June, the startup raised $53 million from Finch Capital, Outpost Ventures and other firms. This gives NomuPay a way to compete against the myriad payment companies targeting Asia Pacific, where digital transactions are growing at a faster rate than other parts of the world. 

NomuPay has no direct connection to the disgraced German processor. After Wirecard collapsed in 2020, Finch Capital, a New York-based venture capital firm, acquired Wirecard's licenses in Asia Pacific and surrounding regions, with markets including Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Turkey and Hong Kong. The VC used those assets to create NomuPay, which has clients such as Spotify, Ikea, and Facebook. 

It took about six to 12 months for Wirecard's licenses to transfer to NomuPay as regulators picked through the startup's payment and risk systems. So far, NomuPay has gained six licenses and hopes to obtain between 15 and 20. It's looking next at Vietnam and Indonesia. 

"It took a while for regulators to get comfortable with our compliance posture and anti-money-laundering policies," said Tomas Likar, chief growth officer at NomuPay, which is based in Dublin and is pursuing clients that want to do business in Asia Pacific and need a  partner to navigate the region's diverse payment markets. 

NomuPay uses an application programming interface to connect with local payment systems, as well as providing access to treasury and data management capabilities. Clients use the company as a partner for local markets that have high potential for digital commerce growth. These markets are not easy for Western companies to reach because of the high number of necessary integrations with local payment systems. The many differences among those payment rails work against a one-size model for the region. 

"Wirecard had a focus on places like Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines," Likar said. "It's hard to get a license in Hong Kong. It would have taken ten years to get anything done there." 

Wirecard shut down in 2020 following an accounting scandal in which the company falsely boosted profits and sales records. The company's remains were gradually sold, piece by piece. Santander acquired parts of Wirecard's merchant services business and staff. Railsbank (now Railsr) acquired Wirecard's U.K. business. The acquiring companies are buying Wirecard's innovation, connections to local markets and payment systems while trying to avoid its brand or back story. 

"The risks are probably the same as those with any payments startup, which is that NomuPay is entering a crowded market," said Aaron McPherson, a principal at AFM Consulting. 

NomuPay hopes its network of licenses will help differentiate it for merchants looking to sell in Asia Pacific. 

"You have to hit a critical mass in Asia Pacific," Likar said. "Nobody is interested if you only have one country." 

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Given the differences between markets a 2022 McKinsey report stressed partnerships with companies that can navigate the hundreds of payment options in Asia Pacific will be key to success in the region. 

The digital consumer market in Southeast Asia is expected to expand from about 370 million people to more than 400 million by 2027, according to Bain and Company. Asia Pacific is also moving away from cash at a faster rate than other regions. The number of cashless transactions is expected to expand at a 109% yearly rate through 2024, then 76% yearly from 2025 to 2030, according to PwC, which reports the number of cashless payments in Asia Pacific will jump from less than 500 billion to more than one trillion over the next two years. This compares to cashless payments growth rates in Africa (78% through 2024 and 64% from 2025 to 2030), Europe (64% and 39%), Latin America (52% and 48%) and the U.S./Canada (43% and 35%). 

Payment companies such as Adyen and Stripe are also looking to connect merchants to the Asia Pacific market. Stripe, for example, has worked with central banks in Indonesia and Thailand to establish local connections in those countries. 

"Wirecard was a massive fraud perpetrated on willfully blind German regulators and on investors who wanted to believe, but it also had a portfolio of real payment-processing assets, most of which were sold to trade buyers," said Eric Grover, a principal at Intrepid Ventures, who added NomuPay still faces a lot of competition. 

In addition to Adyen and Stripe, PPRO, Checkout.com and PayPal are all active in Asia Pacific, as are more local payment technology companies such as Ant. "But if NomuPay has something distinctive, there's room in the market," Grover said.