Klarpay is a FINMA-regulated FinTech and received an investment from Payabl Group a few months ago. The latter was founded by former Wirecard executives Ruediger Trautmann, Dietmar Knoechelmann, and his wife Ayelet Fruchtlander-Knoechelmann. Klarpay announced that in Q3 2022, it became a Principal Member of the VISA network and integrated Visa’s B2B Connect, which enables Klarpay’s business customers to perform cross-currency outbound payments. And it introduced Apple Pay.
Key Data
| Trading name | Klarpay |
| Business activity | Payment processor Merchant service provider |
| Domain | https://klarpay.com |
| Social media | LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium |
| Jurisdiction | Switzerland |
| Regulator | FINMA |
| Related individuals | Mihkel Vitsur, Chairman (LinkedIn) Beatrice Kern, Vice Chairwoman (LinkedIn) Alena Nicolai, Board Member (LinkedIn) Martynas Bieliauskas, CEO (LinkedIn) Jeff-Richard Angehrn, CFO (LinkedIn) Marc Evans, COO (LinkedIn) Christos Alatzidis, CTO (LinkedIn) Ugne Buraciene, Advisor (LinkedIn) |
| Investor | Payabl.cy Limited (prev. PowerCash21 Limited), Cyprus |
| PayRate42 | follow the Klarpay profile on PayRate42 |
Short Narrative
Klarpay AG looks like a sort of spin-off of BDSwiss, the investment firm of Jan Eric Malkus. Some of its former executives and founders are key people in fintech:
- Mihkel Vitsur, co-founder and former BDSwiss Chairman, co-founded Klarpay and is its Chairman;
- Martynas Bieliauskas, former director and co-founder of BDSwiss Group, co-founded Klarpay and is its CEO;
- Christos Alatzidis, the former BDSwiss CIO & CTO, co-founded Klarpay and is its CTO;
- The former BDSwiss Chief Financial Officer Marc Evans joined Klarpay in Feb 2022 as Chief Financial Officer.
Until recently, Payabl did business as PowerCash21. The former Wirecard managers and partners Ruediger Trautmann, Ayelet (Fruchtlander) Knoechelmann, Frank Schoonbaert, and the Israeli Nissim Zarfati founded the PowerCash21 Group around 2010 with several legal entities in different jurisdictions.
PowerCash21 Limited in Cyprus is a Payment Institution regulated by the Central Bank of Cyprus. Sometime over the last couple of months, the PowerCash21 Group reincarnated into Payabl.
In May 2022, Payabl successfully organized a seed finance round for Klarpay and invested itself. In total, Klarpay was injected with CHF 3 million. As part of the Payabl engagement in Klarpay, Ugne Buraciene, Group CEO of Payabl, was appointed as advisor to Klarpay.
