Keru Fintech Investments buys Holvi from BBVA

Holvi, a Helsinki, Finland-based financial services startup, announced that it entered into an investment agreement for getting new owners in the company.

The deal, which has the financial details undisclosed, was made with existing shareholder BBVA, which sold all its equity stake to Keru Fintech Investments.

Keru Fintech Investments is an investment vehicle set up by Holvi's co founder Tuomas Toivonen. Part of the deal, Toivonen is taking on the CEO role with immediate effect, replacing Antti-Jussi Suominen, who has agreed to step down.

Holvin, founded in 2011, provides banking accounts for sole traders and small businesses and is active in markets from Finland, Austria and Germany. In 2019, the company had a client base of about 150k customers and in the 2020 it notably pulled out of the UK market.

BBVA had acquired Holvi back in 2016,  just two years after BBVA acquired U.S. digital bank, Simple, for $117 million. At the end of 2020, BBVA also announced folding Simple, as part of a larger M&A deal through which BBVA exited the American market.