Powens
Also a provider — view Powens’s profile →“Can combining Open Banking data aggregation with an in-house EMI for embedded payments create a defensible European open finance infrastructure play?”
Founded2012
HQParis, France
Total raised€35M+ (disclosed)
Latest roundGrowth, 2022
IndustryInfrastructure / Open banking
The story
Founded 2012 as Budget Insight, a B2C PFM app, Powens pivoted to a B2B open-banking API platform and became a licensed French payment institution under PSD2 in 2016. Joined Crédit Mutuel Arkéa in 2019, then raised €35M from PSG Equity and rebranded to Powens in 2022. The 2024 acquisition of Spanish EMI Unnax turned it into a full-stack Open Finance + embedded payments provider — the strategic bet is that data aggregation alone is a commodity, but combined with an embedded EMI it becomes defensible infrastructure.
Product timeline
2012
Founded as Budget Insight, one of Europe's first Open Banking pioneers with a PFM app, later pivoting from B2C to B2B· pivot
2016
Registered as a payment institution in France for PIS and AIS services under PSD2, validated by Banque de France· banking
2019
Joined the Crédit Mutuel Arkéa group to accelerate European expansion· acquisition
2022
Raised €35M from PSG Equity and rebranded from Budget Insight to Powens, connecting to 1,800+ institutions across Europe· pivot
2024
Acquired Spanish EMI Unnax to form Powens Group, combining Open Finance and embedded payments in one platform· acquisition
Acquisitions
Regulated entities
2
regulatory licences held by Powens
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
4 layers disclosed in Powens’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Powens (self-operated)Unnax Payment Systems (self-operated)
Money movement
in the full report
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Open banking
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
5 more providers across 3 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.