Israeli crypto startup Simplex set to be acquired for $200-$250 million by Canada's Nuvei

Israeli company Simplex, which provides fiat infrastructure for the cryptocurrency ecosystem, is in advanced negotiations to be acquired by Canadian payment processing giant Nuvei for between $200-$250 million, Calcalist has learned.

The deal is set to be officially completed in the coming days. Two years ago, Nuvei, which is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and has a market cap of almost $10 billion, bought Israeli-founded payment technology company SafeCharge for $889 million. SafeCharge was founded in 2006 by CEO David Avgi and Israeli businessman Teddy Sagi.

Founded in 2014 by CEO Nimrod Lehavi and two former employees of Paypal, Chief Technology Officer Erez Shapira and Chief Analytics Officer Netanel Kabala, Simplex offers online payment processing and fraud protection exclusively for the cryptocurrency industry. The company was initially established to provide an easier method of buying cryptocurrency with credit cards and has since branched out to provide crypto wallets, exchanges, and outlets the ability to offer popular local and global payment methods to their users. It currently employs over 100 people, most of them in Israel, and has raised $18 million to date mostly from local private investors, including iAngles and the DRW Trading Group.

Simplex unveiled its latest product last December, titled Simplex Banking. The first crypto banking solution to natively integrate to exchanges and wallets’ apps, Simplex Banking also provides users one-click deposits that support large purchase amounts, thanks to Simplex’s banking license and the personal IBAN (International Bank Account Number) Simplex Banking generates for each user.

Additionally, users enjoy a ‘one and done’ policy when it comes to document submission and user validation (KYC), ensuring a fast and efficient checkout process. In the recent soft launch of the product, millions of euros were deposited to buy and sell crypto assets.

Nuvei's proprietary platform offers direct connections to all major payment card schemes in over 200 markets worldwide, supports 455 local and alternative payment methods, nearly 150 currencies, and 40 cryptocurrencies.