Korean fintech Kakao Pay to acquire majority stake in US brokerage firm Siebert

Kakao Pay, the online payment service of South Korean messaging and internet giant Kakao, announced that it has acquired a stake in Siebert Financial, a brokerage firm based in New York. Kakao spent $17 million on this transaction and the company now owns a 19.9 percent stake in Siebert.

This is just the first step as Kakao Pay plans to acquire an additional 31.1 percent stake in Siebert depending on shareholder and regulatory approval. If it goes through, Kakao Pay would become the largest shareholder of Siebert, owning a 51 percent stake in total. Gloria Gebbia, Siebert’s controlling shareholder and board member, told TechCrunch that the second transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024.

Kakao Pay first launched its mobile payment service in 2014. It was spun off from Kakao Corp in 2017 and it is now one of the major mobile payment players in South Korea. The Korean fintech firm offers online and offline payments, money transfer, credit rating, insurance and loan services to approximately 40 million registered users in South Korea. Siebert Financial, the US-based brokerage and financial advisory firm, and its subsidiaries have been providing financial services for over 50 years. One of its subsidiaries, Muriel Siebert & Co (MSCO), has more than 100,000 customers.