Figopara, which is on its way to becoming the main platform where commercial enterprises can manage their financing processes, acquired TekCep and TekPOS, the open banking products of Softtech, a subsidiary of Is Bankasi. With this acquisition, Figopara’s commercial customers will be able to manage their cash flows correctly by seeing their banking data as well as their invoice data. In addition, it will be possible to instantly determine credit limits with the most up-to-date data.
Figopara, the new generation finance platform that supports the financial management of businesses and helps them have a healthy cash flow, will now also offer open banking services.
Figopara, which has incorporated open banking products such as TekCep and TekPOS, developed by Isbank subsidiary Softtech and used by Isbank, with its team, applied for a license to the Central Bank with the Figo Payment Enterprises Inc. it founded. Figopara will begin to offer open banking services to businesses with the representation it will receive until the payment company application is approved by the Central Bank.
While Figopara provides scoring based on instant invoice information of commercial enterprises, with this new acquisition it will improve its algorithm and provide information that can make a difference at the point of scoring. It will also show commercial businesses’ commercial accounts in different banks, account transactions and POS transactions in more than one bank on a single screen.
Isbank increased its investment in Figopara
With the acquisition, Is Bankasi increased its existing investment in Figopara. In Figopara’s investment round, which was completed in October 2022 with a valuation of $50 million, the Bank invested $500 thousand in the company with Maxis Innovative GSYF, and with the latest acquisition, it invested another $1 million 250 thousand in the company in return for shares. With this agreement, Is Bankasi reinforced its belief in Figopara’s goal of becoming the main platform used by commercial enterprises in Turkiye.
Koray Bahar: “We aim to provide service to 90 thousand businesses in 2024”
Emphasizing that they are taking firm steps towards the goal of becoming a platform where commercial enterprises will meet all their financial needs, Figopara Founding Partner and CEO Koray Bahar said, “With this acquisition, we are moving towards a structure where our customers can see all their cash flows. We want to be the ‘Finance Application’ where commercial businesses can see their financial processes with forward-looking forecasts and view their daily and up-to-date financial data on a single platform. We provide services to more than 10 thousand businesses, and we aim to increase this number to 80-90 thousand in 2024. Our only goal is to provide more value-added services to both our existing and new customers. We applied for a license from Figo Payment Enterprises Inc. and the Central Bank to provide all these services. We will offer open banking services to our customers through representation until our payment company application is approved by the Central Bank.”
Hakan Aran: “Banks and fintechs will grow together”
Isbank General Manager Hakan Aran stated that their interest in fintechs and their investment in Figopara stem from the startups’ ability to effectively solve a problem in finance, and that they attach importance to supporting the development of the solutions that consumers need. Touching on the relationship between fintechs and banks, Aran said, “I think it is right to walk together, taking the wind of fintechs with us, that fintechs and banks have a lot to learn from each other, and that with the right partnerships, collaborations and service banking, an environment has been created where banks and financial technology companies will grow together. The cooperation between Figopara and Is Bankasi constitutes an important example in this sense.” Stating that there is currently a favorable environment for the development of fintechs in Turkiye, Aran said, “The conditions in our country allow fintechs to be stronger and produce more robust products compared to other countries. Enterprises in this field can thus be superior to competition abroad.”
Source: Egirisim / Prepared by Irem Yildiz