Only have 1 minute? Here are 3 key takeaways:
- Bulgarian-founded spend management solution Payhawk has obtained an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority after a detailed assessment of its compliance and operational processes.
- The new UK EMI license will enable Payhawk to directly issue electronic money, facilitate digital payments, and offer card issuance and payment solutions to both new and existing customers in the UK.
- Payhawk aims to enhance its payment services, optimize infrastructure, and solidify its position as a leading global spend management company.
Payhawk, a Bulgarian-founded spend management solution, is now a licensed Electronic Money Institution (EMI) in the United Kingdom. The Financial Conduct Authority approved the license after extensive due diligence into the company’s compliance, financial, and operational processes.
Payhawk is a financial platform for expense, payments, and invoice management. The company became the first Bulgarian unicorn almost two years ago, after raising $100M in a round led by the Silicon Valley-based VC Lightspeed Venture Partners. Currently, Payhawk has more than 280 employees, and it serves companies in over 32 countries.
In the past few months, the company has added several executives to the leadership team with a background in leading regulated financial institutions, including a new General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Vice President of Payments & Operations.
The new UK EMI license will enable Payhawk to directly issue electronic money, facilitate digital payments, and offer card issuance and payment solutions to both new and existing customers in the UK.
“By controlling more of the payment process stack for our customers, we can optimize the infrastructure to address the needs of our client base — further accelerating development velocity and innovation. This is a major step in our ambition to become the preferred global spend management company by combining our cutting-edge software with regulated payment services”, said Hristo Borisov, CEO and Co-founder of Payhawk.
