Visa Europe invests £24.7m in Monitise

Deepens its alliance with the mobile money specialist through the medium of cash.

The two companies began working together eight months ago, when Monetise developed mobile banking services for the credit card giant.

Monetise also has an existing global agreement with Visa Inc, which is an separate company to Visa Europe, and today’s announcement means both companies now have strategic investments in Monitise.

Visa paid 35p per share for 70.5 million new Monitise shares. As part of the deal, Visa Europe's CEO Peter Ayliffe will now join Monitise’s board.

Monitise Group's CEO Alastair Lukies said: "We are excited by the opportunities ahead for Monitise and the global mobile money industry as mobiles increasingly become the accepted new way to bank, pay and shop."

"We have now established a clear and proven leadership position in the mobile money space. Our technology underpins services in mobile banking, payments and commerce for millions of consumers on four continents with the value of mobile transfers and payments alone running into billions of pounds per year and growing.”