A lost wallet, not enough cash, the store accepts only card payments - we’ve all been there. The need for paying anything in just a matter of seconds is long-awaited, and now it can be done by the only thing that you take literally everywhere with you - your phone. One of the leading mobile payment services which give the public fast, easy and safe transactions is Vipps. Following their motto of making everyday life easier and simpler, Vipps gives users the opportunity to make various transactions, pay in stores, and check out their tax returns.

Back in 2015, Sven Malvik wanted to create a platform that would simplify everyday payments. Mobile payments weren’t a thing in Norway at that time and the market was longing for a new service. When Vipps was founded in May 2015, it made quite the impression on the public, and by November, the service provider had over 1 million users. This made the platform the biggest payment mobile application in Norway.

Before Malvik had the bright idea to create a mobile payment application for Norwegians only, he had various endeavors working at different companies as a software developer.

Software Developer in the Making

Education-wise, there isn’t much to say about Malvik. He enrolled at the preferred faculty and graduated from the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. He got his computer engineering degree in 2004, and from there on out, he started to look for job opportunities.

For about a decade, Malvik was part of various different companies, where he was hired as a software developer, and as he continued building his craft, he went up the ranks in every company that he worked.

His journey started as a software developer, moving on to senior software developer and then team leader developer; later on, he even held the positions of a lead software engineer and project manager. Malvik has worked with hundreds of other software engineers throughout his career and has had countless co-workers who all have just praising words to say when it comes to his work ethic.

Many of his past colleagues have said that Malvik loves what he does and that he takes every project seriously and passionately. His humbling nature never let him consider himself as the smartest in the room, and he’d always aspired to learn, take in new ideas, and improve his skill set.

Once he established himself as a highly talented and wise software engineer, by climbing the ranks, he even showed excellent team leadership capabilities. Countless co-workers have said that he always goes the extra mile and will make sure that his team succeeds in what they are assigned to do.

Creating Vipps

Having extensive experience when it comes to developing applications, Malvik had the idea of developing one for his own. He was eager to design a platform where users in Norway could use their mobile devices to make payments. This was the initial idea that led to what Vipps is today.

The project was in development for quite some time, and it all came to fruition in May 2015, when Malvik first launched Vipps. After about six months from the initial launch, Vipps became the biggest mobile payment service in Norway. With well over 1 million users, Vipps was growing fast, and users were thrilled to save time using a platform to make their everyday payments fast and smooth.

Being the largest Norwegian mobile payment provider is a challenge, and the company always tries to improve, implementing new technology and collaborating with other companies just to make the user's experience simpler, safer, and quicker.

Apart from some international competition, Vipps didn’t have any big Norwegian competitors, making it pretty easy to get a hold of millions of users. In the beginning, only DNB (Den Norske Bank) users could use the app and make payments using the bank's services. However, quickly after seeing the growth of the platform, Vipps made sure to partner up with more than 15 other independent banks, which skyrocketed their user number.

Exponential Growth

Wanting to expand even more and ensure that more users get a safer, faster, and easier way to make transactions, in 2018, Vipps, BankID, and BankAxept merged together, creating the biggest Nordic payment platform. The merger of these three companies was approved by the Norwegian Competition Authority and the Ministry of Finance. This was amazing news because now, the combined intellectual forces of these three giants in their respective fields meant that their users would get more cost-effective solutions.

As years went by, the merger bore fruits, with the newly formed company having outstanding success. However, Vipps knew that even with this merger, some international competitors were still ahead, and if they wanted to grow even more, they needed to expand their operations outside of Norway.

That is why in early 2021, news broke out that Vipps, together with Denmark’s MobilePay and Finland’s Pivo, will merge together to expand the region of availability of this Nordic payment e-wallet. All three combined serve more than 11 million users, which have greatly benefited from the collaboration. The headquarters of the newly formed company are in Oslo, regulated by Norwegian authorities.

The main goal of this merger was to create a leading digital wallet in Europe. Together they will increase their product development and ensure cross-border payments. Having the most up-to-date technology out of the three, Vipps will be making all of the technical decisions; however, it will have to meet Danish and Finish requirements.

As of now, all three parties are waiting for the approval of various institutions, including the European Commission. The final decision is set to be made in early 2022. When the procedure is completed, the banks behind Vipps will own 65% of the newly formed company, Danske Bank will own 25%, and Op Financial Group will own 10%. As a result of this merger, Vipps will have to terminate the merging contract they made back in 2018 with BankID and BankAxept.

Future Endeavors

For the entirety of its existence, Vipps has been the leader in mobile payments in Norway; however, with the announced merger with MobilePay from Denmark and Pivo from Finland, it will be bound to become the biggest throughout the Scandinavian peninsula.

This is a massive step forward, making the user’s experience even faster, safer and simpler. With over 11 million users, and having close to 330,000 shops, as well as online shops where payment via Vipps is possible - this will make the new company one of the biggest mobile payment providers in Europe.

Across all three companies, there are more than 500 employees, with the majority of them working from home. When the merger finalizes, a new headquarters of the company will be opened in Oslo.

All in all, Vipps has made enormous strides since its launch in 2015. From Malvik himself to all the other dedicated employees, it has been a team effort to create the biggest Norwegian mobile payment app. With cutting-edge technologies being used and getting more and more companies on board with their innovative ideas, Vipps is clearly aiming to bring its users better solutions and affordable services.