Lunar set to acquire Norwegian digital bank Instabank for €132m

Danish neobank Lunar looks set to continue its Nordic expansion with the acquisition of Norwegian digital bank Instabank.

Lunar has offered €132m in cash to buy Instabank

Lunar has offered €132 million in cash to buy Instabank, representing NOK 3.75 (€0.39) per share.

Instabank’s board has voted unanimously to approve the deal, as have shareholders representing 73% of the remaining share capital.

Lunar says the deal will “significantly increase” its footprint in Norway and “additionally open the door to the Finnish market ahead of launching its full product offering”.

Instabank’s chair of the board of directors, Cathrin Nylander, says the combination of Instabank and Lunar will create “a strong Nordic fintech attractively positioned to compete with the Nordic banking leaders”.

Founded in 2016, Instabank claims more than 60,000 customers in Norway, Finland and Germany, providing both secured and unsecured loans and savings.

Earlier this month, Lunar secured a €70 million Series D-2 funding round, taking the firm’s total Series D funding to €280 million.

At the time, Lunar CEO Ken Villum Klausen said Lunar was anticipating “M&A activities to complement our Nordic offering”.

Lunar also launched a crypto trading platform and B2B payments solution at the time of the Series D-2 raise.

In October, Lunar acquired full-stack payments platform Paylike for an undisclosed sum. Last month, it welcomed movie star Will Ferrell as a celebrity investor.

Founded in 2015, Lunar is active in Denmark, Sweden and Norway and claims more than 500,000 users on its platform.