Vipps MobilePay Sells Checkout Business to Kustom in NOK 490 Million Deal, Sharpening Wallet Strategy

Vipps MobilePay said on 26 March 2026 that it will sell its Checkout business to Swedish payments company Kustom and enter a strategic distribution partnership intended to expand Vipps and MobilePay availability across online merchants. The deal is valued at about NOK 490 million and covers around 3,000 online shops with transaction volume of roughly NOK 7 billion. Kustom said the initial purchase price is NOK 408.7 million, with up to NOK 81.7 million in additional contingent consideration linked to the transferred business's performance over the following 12 months. Closing is scheduled for 30 April 2026, the purchase will be paid in cash from existing funds, and Kustom expects a positive impact on operating profit from the second quarter of 2026.

The transaction is not a withdrawal by Vipps MobilePay from online payments. It is a divestment of the owned checkout layer combined with a deeper partnership around distribution. Vipps said it will continue to offer its standard online payment solutions as well as services such as Vipps MobilePay Number and Donations, while Kustom becomes a recommended checkout partner and offers Vipps products including Login, Express Checkout and Recurring Payments to its merchant base. Merchants covered by the agreement will keep the same pricing they previously had with Vipps, while migration will begin in the second quarter of 2026 and continue on a rolling basis through 2026, with completion expected in early 2027.

Kustom's Corporate Origins

Kustom is the former Klarna Checkout business. Kustom BidCo said in its 2024 reporting that it acquired all shares in Larkan XII AB, known as Klarna Checkout, on 1 October 2024, establishing the business as an independent company outside Klarna. That origin matters because the Vipps transaction is not just an add-on acquisition by a generic checkout vendor; it is another step in the build-out of a standalone Nordic checkout platform with roots in one of the region's most widely known e-commerce payment products.

Strategic Logic for Vipps MobilePay

For Vipps MobilePay, the deal looks like a portfolio simplification aimed at concentrating resources on the wallet and user layer rather than owning the full merchant checkout stack. Chief executive Rune Garborg framed the move around increasing competition from global technology companies and the need to sharpen Vipps MobilePay's role as a digital wallet while extending reach through partners. That is consistent with the group's recent strategy. Vipps MobilePay said in its 2024 results release that it launched tap-to-pay on iPhone in Norway in December 2024 after the European Commission accepted Apple's binding commitments opening NFC access on iPhones in the EEA in July 2024.

The financial backdrop helps explain that strategic choice. Vipps MobilePay reported 2024 revenue of NOK 1.707 billion, up NOK 141 million year on year, with transaction income growth of 18%. At the same time, it reported a pre-tax loss of NOK 751 million and EBITDA of minus NOK 540 million. Against that backdrop, selling a non-core infrastructure asset while keeping distribution and payment relevance in e-commerce can be read as a capital-discipline move as much as a commercial one. For context, the roughly NOK 490 million transaction value is equivalent to about 28.7% of Vipps MobilePay's 2024 revenue.

Kustom's Scale Play

For Kustom, the acquisition is a scale and distribution play. The company said the transferred merchant contracts could add more than 3,000 merchants and more than NOK 7 billion in transaction volume, while strengthening its position in the Nordic market and broadening access to merchants that want Vipps and MobilePay in their checkout flows.

Kustom is also entering the deal from a position of expansion, but not without financial nuance. In its year-end report for 2025, the group reported fourth-quarter net revenue of SEK 320.5 million and operating profit of SEK 39.3 million, while the net loss for the period was SEK 10.4 million. The same report said Kustom serves more than 24,000 merchants across 170 markets and had around SEK 13 billion in signed annual transaction volume launched during 2025 or expected to launch over the coming 12 months.

The company also strengthened its funding position immediately before the Vipps announcement. On 25 March 2026, Kustom disclosed a financing from Resurs totalling approximately SEK 367 million through a directed new share issue, alongside a strategic partnership agreement.

Merchant Impact and Market Structure

From a merchant perspective, the near-term implications look constructive if the migration is executed cleanly. Vipps said some merchants already used Kustom Checkout with Vipps MobilePay as an add-on through an external integration. Under the new arrangement, Vipps said those merchants will gain direct access to Vipps MobilePay through Kustom, reducing technical and operational complexity.

That detail matters because it points to a broader market-structure trend in European payments: increasing specialization. Wallet providers compete on consumer reach, authentication, trust and brand relevance. Checkout providers compete on merchant integrations, orchestration, conversion, local payment-method coverage and implementation complexity. The Vipps-Kustom deal fits that pattern.

Competitive Implications and Execution Risk

The competitive implications are most immediate in Nordic e-commerce. Kustom gains merchant contracts, transaction volume and a recommended-partner position inside the Vipps MobilePay ecosystem. For rival providers, the issue is less the headline purchase price than the fact that a major regional wallet is now steering checkout demand toward a single preferred partner.

The main watchpoint is execution rather than strategic logic. Payments migrations are operationally sensitive, and the transition runs from the second quarter of 2026 into early 2027. Vipps' developer documentation states that Vipps MobilePay Checkout will become Kustom Checkout and that the product will be delivered and developed by Kustom going forward.

Overall, the transaction looks strategically coherent for both sides. Vipps MobilePay monetizes a non-core infrastructure asset, simplifies its operating model and doubles down on being a distribution-led Nordic wallet. Kustom adds merchant volume, embeds itself more deeply in one of the region's strongest payment brands and strengthens its position as a specialist checkout provider with broader European ambitions.