UK digital bank Zopa has acquired payments platform Rvvup to transform and accelerate its retail finance offering, positioning itself at the centre of merchant checkouts.

The acquisition enables Zopa to expand its capability beyond point-of-sale lending to support all modern payment methods through a single unified experience. The digital bank promises new and existing merchants will benefit from single integration, deeper data insights, improved payment conversion rates, and lower processing costs within six months.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Rvvup currently serves various businesses including Tile Giant, MP Moran, French Bedroom, Mole Valley Farmers, and Fireaway Pizza.

Rvvup's team brings extensive payments expertise from major firms including PayPal, Fiserv, Depop, Ocado, and Capital One. The platform uses an AI-powered payment agent that automatically selects optimal payment methods to reduce costs and boost sales. The system also synchronises with tools like Xero and handles daily reconciliation tasks that merchants typically face when using multiple payment providers.

This marks Zopa's second payments acquisition, following its purchase of point-of-sale finance and lending platform DivideBuy in early 2023. The DivideBuy acquisition was Zopa's first deal and was expected to grow revenue by at least 20 per cent after closing.

Zopa expects the Rvvup acquisition to triple the size of its embedded finance business within two years. The company aims to establish itself as a top three retail finance provider within five years, with Rvvup becoming a subsidiary of Zopa Group.

Last month, Zopa announced a five-year campaign to reskill 100,000 banking workers in AI disciplines by 2030. This initiative follows research by the bank in partnership with Juniper Research, which found that banks will invest over £1.8 billion in generative AI by 2030 to boost productivity, reduce costs, and improve customer experience. The research identified approximately 27,000 banking professionals as potentially impacted by AI technology.

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