Fintech
A British judge puts an end to the dispute between JPMorgan and the Greek fintech founder
Unlock the Publisher’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
A High Court judge in London has put an end to the feud between JPMorgan and the founder of a Greek fintech that the bank partly owns, opening up the possibility of a sale of the business.
The Wall Street bank and Haris Karonis had filed lawsuits against each other in February over shared ownership of Viva Wallet, a popular payments platform used by southern European businesses.
Judge Clare Moulder delivered her verdict on Thursday the controversywhich accepted some of the arguments from both sides, establishing how Viva should be valued and its ability to expand into new markets.
The ruling ends JPMorgan’s latest legal headache related to its strategy in recent years of investing in high-growth fintech companies.
In a statement, JP Morgan said: “The court has now provided a key step to move forward with fair and transparent valuations – which could allow Viva to be sold soon, before the fintech M&A market weakens further.”
Karonis, founder and CEO of Viva, whose holding company WRL is the majority owner of the company, said: “I am thrilled that Viva will now be appropriately valued based on its growth strategy in the US, reflecting its equity of market. value.”
The case concerns JPMorgan’s €800 million investment in Viva two years ago, which gave it a 48.5% stake in the company. Under the terms of the deal, if Viva is valued below 5 billion euros by June 2025, JPMorgan could take control.
Karonis’ lawyers argued that JPMorgan had tried to lower Viva’s valuation by blocking its entry into the United States and new European markets, in the lawsuit filed in February.
In a separate complaint against Karonis, JPMorgan said the entrepreneur had made moves to “limit or circumvent our contractual and legal rights as an investor.”
Since its founding in 2000, Viva has become one of the largest fintechs in Southern Europe, offering payment services in 24 countries. In 2020 it acquired a banking license after purchasing Greek digital bank Praxia.
The legal dispute between JPMorgan and Karonis is the latest spat the bank has had with the founder of a company it invested in, after investing billions of dollars in more than 40 fintechs since 2021.
Last year, it sued Charlie Javicefounder of Frank, a student finance platform that the bank bought for $175 million in 2021, after accusations of significantly inflating its user numbers.