JPMorgan weighs investment in fintech startup Yapily

JPMorgan Chase is considering buying a stake in Yapily, a financial technology startup that's seeking to raise fresh funds, people familiar with the matter said.

The U.S. bank is in early-stage talks with London-based Yapily about the possibility of making an investment, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.

Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

Yapily is looking to bring in capital as it closes in on its acquisition of finAPI, a provider of open banking solutions in Germany, one person said. Yapily is buying finAPI from Schufa Holding, the German equivalent to the U.S. FICO credit score firm. 

Deliberations are ongoing, and there's no certainty they will result in a deal, according to the people. Representatives for JPMorgan and Yapily declined to comment.

Yapily has created an application programming interface for open banking, a tool that provides the infrastructure for software developers to build payment services and share data between different financial institutions. It works with accounting, crypto, digital banking and wealth management firms and has a presence in the U.K., Lithuania and Germany, according to its website. 

For JPMorgan, any investment would continue a hot streak of fintech tie-ups for the bank. It's been striking dozens of deals in the space as it seeks to fend off future rivals. In the last 18 months, it's bought a stake in the Greek digital banking and payments firm Viva Wallet and acquired the U.K. digital wealth manager Nutmeg Saving & Investment.