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Payone

“Can a Worldline/Sparkassen-backed German acquirer defend and extend the DACH merchant base as European wallets (Wero), BNPL, and marketplace payments become table stakes?”

Founded2003
HQFrankfurt am Main, Germany
IndustryInfrastructure / Payments
The story

Payone traces back to BS Payone (founded 2003) and became today's PAYONE GmbH following the 2018 combination of Ingenico's German payments unit with DSV-Gruppe (Deutscher Sparkassenverlag). It operates as a joint venture between Worldline (which absorbed Ingenico) and DSV, positioning itself as the leading acquirer and payments provider in Germany and Austria. Recent moves have extended it beyond acquiring into BNPL, wallets (Wero), marketplace payments, and integrated POS software.

Last 12 months
2023-04
Product timeline
2003
Founded as BS Payone· founding
2018
Ingenico and DSV-Gruppe (Deutscher Sparkassenverlag) merge their German payments businesses to form PAYONE GmbH· acquisition
2023
Partners with Payla and VVRB to launch BNPL products (Secured Direct Debit, Secured Purchase on Account, Secured Instalments)· lending
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Payone
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
5 layers disclosed in Payone’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Payone (self-operated)checkout
Money movement
in the full report
Card issuing
in the full report
Card network
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
13 more providers across 4 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.