BARCELONA (Reuters) - Dutch fintech Adyen's focus is on organic growth as it launches a virtual and physical card-issuing business to complement payments services it already offers merchants, Chief Financial Officer Ingo Uytdehaage said on Thursday.
Adyen's payments platform, which focuses on card acceptance, processing and settlement for online payments, has emerged as a favorite of technophile clients - including Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Uber and Spotify. Its shares trade at nearly three times the level they floated at in June 2018.
Uytdehaage said the card issuing business was a response to demand from its merchant client base. Adyen did not see it as a consumer product in its own right.
"We don't want to build a consumer proposition - that's not our mission. We want to help our merchants to grow," he told the Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) European Technology, Media and Telecoms Conference in Barcelona.
It will be possible to use Adyen cards online, in smartphone apps or in shops, while they can also be integrated into mobile wallets. Target (NYSE:TGT) customers include the online travel industry and marketplaces.
Asked whether Adyen wanted to grow organically or through acquisition, Uytdehaage said management was more interested in investing in its own technology platform and in hiring the best talent.
The only situation in which Adyen would acquire another company would be if that accelerates a project.
"Acquiring a platform and then migrating it is so inefficient that I don't see it. It's mostly centred around (acquiring) talent," he said.