Inversum

History

2024: Acquisition of Inversum 100% by a subsidiary of Softline

Softline Group of Companies (PJSC Softline), a provider of solutions and services in the field of digital transformation and information security, developing a comprehensive portfolio of its own products and services, on January 10, 2024, announced to TAdviser the acquisition of the Russian payment equipment vendor Inversum. The owner was Softline's 100% subsidiary, Sky Technologies, a software developer for more than 25 POS terminal manufacturers. The value of the transaction and the size of the acquired share are not disclosed. As the first joint project, the teams plan to create a line of payment terminals operating on the basis of import-independent software and equipment of completely Russian production.

source = "Metropolitan Group"

According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, before the deal with Sky Technologies, the co-founders of Inversum LLC were: Pavel Dmitrievich Alexandrov (with a share of 64.5%), Sergey Vladimirovich Bolkisev (with a share of 15.5%), Pavel Andreevich Okhorzin (with a share of 12.5%) and Evgeny Aleksandrovich Savelyev (with a share of 7.5%). How the owners' shares were distributed as a result of the transaction with a subsidiary of Softline is not specified.

Sky Technologies has been operating in the Russian payment market since 2011. In addition to software for POS terminals, the company's portfolio of solutions includes products for device management, a remote download system for crypto keys and its own payment platform, to which 85 thousand active payment devices are connected. Sky Technologies solutions are included in the unified register of Russian computer and database programs and fully comply with international security requirements and standards of the Mir national payment system.

In turn, the Inversum company acquired by Softline Group of Companies is a manufacturer of POS-terminal equipment with 5 years of experience in the market. It is expected that the combination of competencies and resources of both companies will allow developing a comprehensive import-independent line of Russian payment terminals, as well as expanding its presence in the payment market of the Russian Federation and abroad.

As explained in Softline, in order to create Russian payment devices, the developer must have design documentation, specialized EMV and PCI DSS security certificates. Inversum has already received some of the required certificates, other necessary improvements are at the final stage. Thanks to the integration of Inversum solutions into the Softline ecosystem, it will be possible to reduce the process of creating fully domestic terminals compared to developing a solution from scratch.

"To quickly create a Russian POS terminal means to ensure the technological sovereignty of Russia in the payment solutions sector. This will happen due to the fact that Sky Technologies, which is part of Softline Group of Companies, will not only be the owner of payment software, but also the hardware - the devices themselves. This strategically important step will allow you to fully manage the technological stack of the product, "said Alexander Shpet, General Director of Sky Technologies (Softline Group of Companies).

According to him, the devices will develop in accordance with the requirements of the national payment system, fully comply with the requirements of domestic regulators and guarantee the security of personal data of Russians. The launch of the pilot project and the first batch of domestic payment terminals is scheduled for 2024.

"We continue to implement our M&A strategy, which has already shown its effectiveness, having a positive impact on the financial Group's performance. The acquisition of Inversum will further expand the portfolio of its own highly profitable solutions of Softline Group of companies and will strengthen the Group's position in the sector, as well as ensure the import independence of the Russian market for non-cash payments, - I am convinced, Vladimir Lavrov General Director (CEO) of Softline Group of companies.

In his opinion, the extensive experience in integrating the acquired companies will allow Softline to quickly come to the planned results, and the Inversum team will seamlessly join the joint work with Softline specialists.

For his part, Pavel Okhorzin, co-founder of Inversum and commercial director of Sky Technologies, added that joining forces with Sky Technologies for Inversum is a new stage of development that will allow companies to jointly develop payment solutions for different sectors of the economy using all their extensive experience in the field of payment technologies.