Japanese unicorn startup Opn acquires MerchantE from Integrum Holdings to make inroads into the US market

Opn, a Japanese unicorn startup and digital payments processor, has acquired Alpharetta, Georgia-based tech startup MerchantE from U.S. investment firm Integrum Holdings to make inroads into the U.S. online payment market.

The total amount of the transaction was not disclosed, but a source familiar with the transaction told Reuters the U.S. payment processing provider was sold for approximately $400 million.

The combined company processed over $19 billion in payments volume for over 20,000 businesses in 2022, making it a top 25 provider of payment processing in the U.S. MerchantE is one of the leading payments and commerce platforms that serves the needs of mid-market B2B customers B2B customers.

The deal comes as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government attempts to accelerate investments in digital transformation and technology startups to spur economic growth.

Opn, pronounced “open”, currently provides one-stop payment services mainly in Japan and Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Thailand. Following the acquisition, the US  will become the seventh country where it has operations.

“While we continue to see tremendous opportunity to continue building and growing the MerchantE platform, we and our management team partners believe that joining with Opn presents a compelling opportunity to accelerate the Company’s growth and realize unique synergies,” said Integrum co-founders Ursula Burns and Tagar Olson. “Given current market conditions and having made substantial progress against our value creation plan, we determined that this is the right time to exit our investment in MerchantE.”

Jun Hasegawa, Founder and CEO of Opn, said: “Our acquisition of MerchantE represents a transformative step in Opn’s journey to becoming a truly global digital finance platform, underscoring our commitment to making payments seamless and borderless for both people and businesses.”

Founded in 2013, Opn is one of the rare Japanese startups worth more than $1 billion. The startup operates in the Asia-Pacific region and is a top 25 provider of payment processing in the U.S. Opn’s backers include Toyota Financial Services Corporation, the financial services arm of Toyota Motor Corporation, and SCB 10X, the venture capital arm of Siam Commercial Bank.