Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Unzer on the take over of acquirer Clearhaus and payment service provider QuickPay from Denmark. The transaction is subject to approval by the relevant supervisory authorities. These acquisitions will make Unzer, one of the fastest growing fintechs in Europe, a fully integrated payment service provider. The founders of Clearhaus and QuickPay are to remain co-invested. All parties involved have agreed to maintain confidentiality regarding the purchase price.
Clearhaus is a payment service provider and acquirer that was founded in Aarhus and focuses on payment processing for online shops in Europe. The company supports more than 17,000 online shops in 33 countries. QuickPay is a payment service provider that was also founded in Aarhus back in 2004. The company processes transactions for online shops and offers all popular payment types in Europe. The two companies have been cooperating with one another since 2014.
The acquiring license that Clearhaus brings to the table will enable Unzer to both cover and monitor the entire added value chain of payment.
Unzer is a fast growing, innovative and modular platform for international payment transactions. The modules cover the entire spectrum of payment management: from processing of various payment types, through automated analytics of customer behaviour and requirements, all the way up to integrative risk management. Unzer was founded in 2003 as “heidelpay”. As one of the pioneers in the sector, the company has repeatedly introduced ground-breaking innovations in and around transaction management over the course of the last 17 years. KKR has been the majority shareholder in Unzer since 2020.
Herbert Smith Freehills had been advising Unzer and formerly heidelpay for years. Recent matters include the acquisition of Paysafe Pay Later as well as advising the founders and the investor AnaCap Financial Partners on the sale of a majority stake to KKR in 2019 and, prior to that, the founders on the sale of a majority stake to AnaCap Financial Partners in 2017.
