Yapily CEO Rules Out M&A as Open Banking Infrastructure Braces for Consolidation Wave

Yapily Opts for Organic Path as Open Banking Sector Braces for Further Consolidation

The chief executive of Yapily, the London-headquartered open banking infrastructure provider backed by European venture firm Lakestar, has signalled the company intends to chart an independent course as the sector enters what many observers expect to be an accelerated phase of mergers and acquisitions.

Stefano Vaccino, founder and CEO of Yapily, told Tech.eu that the company "prefers to remain on the sidelines" amid anticipated consolidation across the open banking landscape — a rare public statement of independence from a sector where tie-ups and bolt-on acquisitions have become a recurring feature of the competitive dynamic.

"We prefer to remain on the sidelines," Vaccino said, according to Tech.eu, in a signal that Yapily is not actively positioning itself as either an acquirer or an acquisition target in the current market environment.

A Sector in Motion

The open banking infrastructure space in Europe has never been static, but deal activity in recent years has intensified the pressure on mid-sized players to define their positions. Larger, better-capitalised platforms have moved to absorb smaller connectivity and data-aggregation specialists, while payments networks and banks have entered the space with strategic investments of their own.

Yapily, which provides application programming interface (API)-based connectivity between financial institutions and third-party developers, competes in a segment that has seen significant strategic repositioning. The broader pattern — platform consolidation, geographic expansion through acquisition, and vertical integration — creates a binary pressure for infrastructure providers: grow by deal or risk being subsumed.

Vaccino's public framing suggests Yapily is deliberately rejecting that binary, at least for now. Whether that reflects genuine strategic confidence or the practical constraints facing a venture-backed company in a more cautious funding environment is an editorial question the company has not publicly addressed in detail.

What Is Confirmed About Yapily

Yapily was founded in 2017 and has raised external funding including a round led by Lakestar, the European venture capital firm whose portfolio spans fintech, SaaS and consumer technology. A $13 million funding round led by Lakestar was confirmed by Retail Banker International, establishing the firm as a Lakestar-backed entity. The total capital raised across all rounds has been reported by multiple outlets at varying figures; this publication is not confirming a specific cumulative total pending primary source verification.

The company's core proposition is connectivity infrastructure: its APIs allow businesses to initiate payments and access financial data directly from bank accounts across multiple European markets, operating within the regulatory framework established by the EU's revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and its UK equivalent.

Yapily has positioned itself as a "pure-play" infrastructure layer — a deliberate strategic choice to avoid competing directly with the clients it serves, a distinction it has emphasised in public communications and industry appearances including at events such as Money20/20.

The Broader Consolidation Question

Editorial interpretation: the open banking infrastructure layer is inherently difficult to scale profitably at low transaction volumes, which creates structural pressure toward consolidation. Fixed costs of maintaining bank API connections across dozens of European markets — each with its own regulatory quirks, technical standards and refresh cycles — weigh heavily on smaller players. The value proposition of scale is unambiguous; the question is how that scale is achieved.

For a company occupying Yapily's position — established enough to have enterprise clients and a recognisable brand among developers, but not yet of the scale of the largest connectivity platforms — the "sidelines" stance carries a degree of calculated ambiguity. It does not foreclose a future transaction; it positions the company as a considered actor rather than a distressed seller.

Whether Vaccino's stated preference for independence reflects a sustainable long-term strategy or a near-term holding position ahead of a more favourable deal environment will depend heavily on factors the company has not disclosed publicly, including its revenue trajectory and cash position.

What to Watch

• UK open banking regulation: The Payment Systems Regulator and FCA's ongoing development of a commercial framework for open banking payments will materially affect the revenue potential of infrastructure providers operating in Yapily's segment.
• PSD3 and PSR implementation in the EU: The next generation of European payments regulation is expected to sharpen — and in some respects complicate — the competitive dynamics for API connectivity providers.
• Investor appetite: Lakestar and any co-investors will have their own timeline considerations as the venture cycle matures.

Yapily did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.