Entrust acquires financial technology company Antelop Solutions

Entrust, a company specialising in trusted identity, payments and data protection, has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Antelop Solutions.

Antelop Solutions is a financial technology company that enables financial institutions to issue secure digital credit and debit cards to their customers. By combining Antelop's solutions with the Entrust card issuance portfolio, Entrust says it can help banks and financial institutions worldwide create integrated, seamless digital and physical financial card and payment experiences for their customers.

Paris-based Antelop Solutions was founded in 2014, and its customer base includes more than 40 banks in 25 countries. The firm has around 30 employees who will join Entrust with the acquisition, including founder and CEO Nicolas Bruley. He will continue to lead the team to advance digital financial credential solutions at Entrust. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Consumers want to transact seamlessly and securely, around the world and across platforms," says Entrust CEO, Todd Wilkinson.

"Banks, credit unions and other financial institutions need to make both digital and physical card payment options secure and easy for their cardholders. Entrust is a world leader in secure payment card issuance."

He says the combination of Entrust and Antelop Solutions will empower financial institutions with a portfolio of digital and physical credential issuance and transaction security solutions.

Antelop Solutions CEO, Nicolas Bruley, says they are pleased to join the Entrust team.

"Our technology greatly reduces the complexity of issuing digital payment offerings," says Bruley.

"As a certified Visa, Mastercard and Cartes Bancaires partner, we can deliver fast, secure integration of all card features onto a single digital payment credential. This empowers banks, credit unions and other issuers to offer true digital-first payment credentials that fully align with consumer expectations for simplicity and security."

The Antelop One Digital Card solution allows banks to securely deliver and manage digital cards in customer mobile apps with a single software development kit (SDK). Including token management, NFC payments, customer authentication, secure interface, and APIs to launch digital cards into all major mobile wallets (Apple, Google, Samsung and more). Antelop Solutions are PCI-DSS certified and help enable compliance with European PSD2 regulations.

"Entrust is empowering our customers to meet the challenge of next-generation payment solutions," says Entrust senior VP of product development, Mike Baxter.

"By bringing the Antelop secure digital financial credential solutions into the Entrust portfolio, customers will gain access to the latest thinking and innovation across the consumer payments ecosystem. Entrust has been investing and leading innovation in financial credentials for more than 50 years, and we expect this to continue for decades to come."