Unicaja has reached an investment agreement with Bit2Me, a leading company in digital asset services for individuals and companies, through which it acquires more than 5% of the capital and becomes the reference financial entity for Alicante fintech in the national territory.
The operation has been carried out through Unicaja Ventures, a new project of the Unicaja Group aimed at making investments in the fintech-startup world.
The investment entitles Unicaja to join the board of directors of Bit2Me, as well as the signing of a commercial agreement between both companies to explore synergies for the development of new innovative financial products.
This alliance will allow Unicaja to respond to the innovations that may arise from the upcoming entry into force of the European MiCA (Market in Crypto Assets) regulations, which legislate the issuance, custody and purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies; Pilot Regime, which defines the applicable rules for the creation of new financial markets for digitized (tokenized) assets in distributed technologies, the so-called DLT or blockchain, and the future digital euro.
For its part, Bit2Me, the first Spanish firm to obtain the registration of cryptocurrency service provider companies from the Bank of Spain and the Spanish-speaking leader in the crypto sector, will be able to offer its more than a million clients the banking services offered by Unicaja.
Unicaja's objective with this investment is to position the bank, together with a national technological partner, in the development of solutions with DLT technologies. Likewise, Bit2Me hopes to strengthen and expand its leadership with the imminent arrival of MiCA.
To Isidro Rubiales, CEO of Unicaja, this operation responds to “our entity's commitment to technological innovation, as well as to take advantage of the opportunity to generate synergies with startups specialized in fintech, such as Bit2Me, to anticipate the future and incorporate solutions that enrich their services and facilitate their adaptation to the changes that customers demand.”
For its part, Severino J. Méndez, general director of Transformation at Unicaja, considers that "this alliance allows the entity to have a reference technological partner, such as Bit2Me, to face with greater guarantees the regulatory change that is occurring in the sector."
To Leif Ferreira, CEO and co-founder of Bit2Me, "with this investment we seek to strengthen our position as leaders in the sector, taking advantage of the support and experience of Unicaja to promote our growth and development."
To Andrei Manuel, COO and co-founder of Bit2Me, “Bit2Me's goal is to offer innovative and secure solutions that not only comply with new regulations, such as MiCA, but also anticipate the implications of the future digital euro and the tokenization of financial assets under the framework of the European Pilot Regime. This collaboration will allow us to expand our technological and operational capabilities, providing our users with advanced products and services, as well as increasing trust and credibility in the market.”
Combination of talent and capabilities
Both companies hope to combine talent and capacity to jointly lead the new scenario of innovations that will be presented in the financial sector from 2025, with the entry into force of MiCA, and from 2026, with the foreseeable arrival of the digital euro. These regulations will force financial entities to have specific technological and personal capabilities, on which Unicaja is already working.
All of this, without losing the shared values of security, transparency, professionalism and seriousness in compliance with regulations, as well as the commitment to helping its clients prosper.
