Aera joins forces with Digiteal and Area42
PRESS RELEASE
Leading merchants NorgesGruppen and Coop Norge from the Nordics are entering into an alliance with Colruyt Group and Credendo to strengthen merchants’ position in the payment landscape and provide best-in-class customer journeys. On April 10th, Aera Payment & Identification acquired Digiteal, and welcomed Credendo as a new shareholder alongside Coop Norge, NorgesGruppen and Colruyt Group. This is a major event for both Fintech companies, expanding their geographical footprint and product reach, and fuelling their ambition of becoming a true European powerhouse in ID and payment solutions.
Aera, a company founded by merchants - for merchants, was established to deliver unique payment and ID solutions supporting excellent customer journeys and effective management while ensuring predictability, control and influence in a dynamic payments' environment. Payments and ID solutions are core building blocks for merchants to ensure control of their own customer journeys, data and costs.
Digiteal, founded in 2015, develops API-based solutions that enable organisations in Belgium but also in neighbouring countries to integrate best practices in key topics such as Peppol E-invoicing, Payments and Open Banking. These solutions rely on European standards and can be integrated in apps, invoicing and accounting software, no matter the company size.
This acquisition will leverage the strong strategic fit of the two companies, building on their complementary geographical footprints, product portfolios and customer segments, to provide premium payment and ID services to a broader set of customers in Europe.
Commenting on the acquisition, CEO Øyvind Apelland at Aera, stated,
"We are thrilled to welcome Digiteal into the Aera family. This acquisition aligns perfectly with our strategic vision and reaffirms our commitment to driving innovation in the financial services market and to support our merchants and customers.”
The acquisition will also combine the strong competencies and cultures of the two organisations, to provide an even stronger value proposition to merchants and set the basis for future growth in Europe.
"Our mission in Digiteal is to help businesses get paid faster, more regularly and at a lower cost. As such, this mission is greatly merchant-oriented. By joining Aera, owned by merchants, we accelerate the realisation of this objective together with colleagues having a similar mission. Their focus on retail and our ability to deliver on all the other verticals make it a perfect match.” Commented Cédric Nève, Digiteal founder and CEO.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Digiteal: Cédric Nève, Digiteal founder and CEO, cedric.neve@digiteal.eu
Aera: Kristian Klavenes, Co-founder and CMO: kristian@aera.id, +4792647466
Colruyt Group: press@colruytgroup.com or +32 473 92 45 10
Credendo: Nabil Jijakli n.jijakli@credendo.com
About Digiteal
As an authorized Payment Institution and a strong believer in European standards, Digiteal offers easy-to-integrate solutions that cover all needs for e-invoice presentment (Peppol), electronic payments and open banking.
About Aera Payment & Identification
Aera is a Nordic Fintech company established by merchants to deliver unique payment and ID solutions supporting excellent customer journeys and effective management while ensuring predictability, control and influence in a dynamic payments' environment.
About Colruyt Group
Colruyt Group operates in the food and non-food distribution sector in Belgium, France and Luxembourg with more than 700 own stores and over 580 affiliated stores. In Belgium, this includes Colruyt Lowest Prices, Okay, Bio-Planet, Cru, Dreambaby, Bike Republic, Zeb, PointCarré, The Fashion Store and the affiliated stores Spar and PointCarré. In France, in addition to Colruyt stores and DATS 24 filling stations, there are also affiliated Coccinelle, Coccimarket, Panier Sympa and PointCarré stores. Jims operates fitness clubs in Belgium and Luxembourg. Newpharma is the Belgian online pharmacy of Colruyt Group. Solucious and Culinoa deliver food service and retail products to professional customers in Belgium (hospitals, SMEs, hospitality sector, etc.). The activities of Colruyt Group also comprise printing and document management solutions (Symeta Hybrid). Colruyt Group also holds interests, amongst others in Virya Energy (to which DATS 24 belongs since June 2023) and in Dreamland. The group employs more than 32.000 employees.
About Credendo
Present across the European continent and active in all segments of trade credit insurance, Credendo provides a range of products that cover risks worldwide: Belgian export credit agency services, whole turnover short-term credit insurance covering European and non-European risks, single risk, excess of loss, top up, surety and reinsurance. Credendo is the fourth largest credit insurance group in Europe.
About NorgesGruppen
NorgesGruppen is a family of concepts with strong positions within consumer goods and services in the food market. NorgesGruppen’s business model consists of production, distribution and sales. In cooperation with several thousand retailers and employees, they offer food and other consumer goods throughout Norway.
About Coop
Coop is one of Norway’s largest grocery retailers with 7 distinct chain concepts, about 1 200 grocery stores, 60 DIY stores and 57 local co-operatives. Coop is also a significant employer, with over 28,000 employees across the country, ranking them as the 11th largest company in Norway. Moreover, what truly makes them different is that they are owned by 2,3 million unique members.