Entrust, a global leader in trusted identity, payments and data protection, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Antelop Solutions, a financial technology company that enables financial institutions to issue secure digital credit and debit cards to their customers. Combining Antelop’s solutions with the industry leading Entrust card issuance portfolio, Entrust can help banks and financial institutions around the world create integrated, seamless digital and physical financial card and payment experiences for their customers.
Paris-based Antelop Solutions was founded in 2014 and its customer base includes more than 40 leading banks in 25 countries. The firm has about 30 employees who will join Entrust with the acquisition, including founder and CEO Nicolas Bruley. He will continue to lead this team to advance digital financial credential solutions at Entrust. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Consumers want to transact seamlessly and securely, around the world and across platforms,” said Todd Wilkinson, CEO of Entrust. “Banks, credit unions and other financial institutions need to make both digital and physical card payment options secure and easy for their cardholders. Entrust is the world leader in secure payment card issuance — the combination of Entrust and Antelop Solutions will empower financial institutions with an unmatched portfolio of digital and physical credential issuance and transaction security solutions.”
“We are extremely pleased to join the Entrust team,” said Nicolas Bruley, CEO of Antelop Solutions. “Our game-changing technology greatly reduces the complexity of issuing digital payment offerings. As a certified Visa, Mastercard and Cartes Bancaires (CB) partner, we can deliver fast, secure integration of all card features onto a single digital payment credential. This empowers banks, credit unions and other issuers to offer true digital-first payment credentials that fully align with consumer expectations for simplicity and security.”
The Antelop One Digital Card solution enables banks to deliver and manage digital cards securely in customer mobile apps with a single software development kit (SDK). This includes token management, NFC payments, customer authentication, secure interface, and APIs to launch digital cards into all major mobile wallets (i.e., Apple, Google, Samsung and more). Antelop solutions are PCI-DSS certified and help enable compliance with European PSD2 regulations.
“Entrust is empowering our customers to meet the challenge of next-generation payment solutions,” said Mike Baxter, SVP of Product Development at Entrust. “By bringing the Antelop secure digital financial credential solutions into the Entrust portfolio, customers will gain access to the latest thinking and new innovation across the consumer payments ecosystem. Entrust has been investing and leading innovation in financial credentials for more than 50 years, and we expect this to continue for decades to come.”
The acquisition is expected to close in the next several weeks pending the satisfaction of certain closing conditions. Cornet Vincent Ségurel provided legal advice to Entrust on the transaction.
