Viva Wallet

Viva Wallet began life in 2000 as Realize SA, a software house founded in Athens by Haris Karonis and Makis Antypas, before the founders moved the business into electronic payments in 2011. The company built out its own licensed payments infrastructure, obtaining authorization as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) from the Bank of Greece in 2014, letting it passport its regulated payment-institution status across the EU, and in January 2020 it acquired the banking license of Praxia Bank, becoming what it describes as Greece's first digital challenger bank.

The company raised a Series D round of $80 million in April 2021, led by Tencent, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Jim Breyer's Breyer Capital, at a valuation reported as roughly €1.5 billion ($1.8 billion), and used the funding to expand across 23 European markets and grow its merchant advance and point-of-sale business.

In January 2022, JPMorgan Chase announced it would acquire a 48.5% stake in Viva Wallet, a deal reported at approximately $800 million, which made Viva the first Greek startup to reach unicorn status. The bank pitched the deal as building out its own pan-European merchant-payments business on top of Viva's licensed infrastructure and merchant base, which by 2026 spans 29 European countries under the Viva.com brand.

Since the JPMorgan investment closed, the two shareholders have been locked in an escalating legal dispute. Viva Wallet's CEO has sued JPMorgan alleging the bank is deliberately constraining the company's growth to depress a contractual valuation used to determine JPMorgan's option to acquire full control, while JPMorgan has filed separate lawsuits in Greece against Viva Wallet directors; English courts have since granted Viva Wallet directors injunctions restraining JPMorgan's Greek claims, a fight one outlet described in 2026 as racing toward a climax.