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The founder and chief executive of a financial technology business co-owned by JPMorgan has begun legal proceedings against the Wall Street bank over what he claims are tactics to suppress his company’s growth.
Haris Karonis, who founded Greek payments company Viva Wallet in 2000, said he believes JPMorgan is trying to drive down the valuation of his business by blocking its entry into the US and new European markets, according to legal documents seen by the Financial Times.
Karonis also accuses JPMorgan of thwarting Viva by allowing the bank’s own payments business to compete with the fintech in some European markets.
Under the terms of JPMorgan’s investment in Viva, the bank can take full control of the fintech if its value is below €5bn in June 2025. The bank has a 48.5 per cent stake in Viva.
JPMorgan has initiated a counter claim against Karonis over what the bank alleges are moves to “limit or circumvent our contractual and legal rights as an investor”, according to people briefed on the situation. Both legal claims were filed in the High Court in London on Wednesday.
Since its founding in 2000, Viva has grown to become one of the biggest fintechs in southern Europe, offering payment services in 24 countries. In 2020, it acquired a banking licence after buying Greek digital lender Praxia.
The legal dispute between JPMorgan and Karonis is the latest spat the bank has had with the founder of a business it has invested in after ploughing billions of dollars into more than 40 fintechs since 2021.
Last year, JPMorgan sued Charlie Javice, founder of Frank, a student finance platform that the bank had bought for $175mn in 2021, over allegations of vastly inflating its user base.
Javice has denied JPMorgan’s allegations of falsifying accounts, and has filed a counter claim accusing the bank of compromising her reputation. The case is ongoing.
JPMorgan invested €800mn in Viva in 2021 to secure its 48.5 per cent stake as part of a much-vaunted push into the European payments market.
In the legal claim lodged in the High Court, Karonis’s holding company, WRL, challenged the conditions of JPMorgan’s option to buy Viva, which it stated “creates perverse incentives” for the bank to limit the growth of the fintech so it can pick the business up for a knockdown price next year.
Executives at JPMorgan, meanwhile, believe Karonis is refusing to accept the valuation of fintech companies has drastically fallen over the past two years because of higher interest rates, said people with knowledge of their legal approach.
When JPMorgan agreed to invest in Viva, chief executive Jamie Dimon — whose grandfather migrated to the US from Greece — travelled to Athens to meet Karonis as well as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
At the bank’s investor day in 2022, Dimon praised JPMorgan’s global head of payments Takis Georgakopoulos for sourcing the Viva deal.
Since then, relations have soured between JPMorgan and Karonis, who is still chief executive of Viva.
Towards the end of last year, two JPMorgan-appointed directors on Viva’s board quit after arguments over their independence, said people briefed on the situation.
The two sides have also disagreed over the way to value Viva, said these people. JPMorgan has enlisted Houlihan Lokey, which recently gave the fintech a €1bn valuation. Viva’s chosen valuer, EY, priced it at €3bn.
JPMorgan and WRL have reached an impasse over how to value Viva and are asking the High Court to resolve the dispute.
Freshfields is acting on behalf of JPMorgan while WRL is being represented by Quinn Emanuel.
“This action was filed after exhausting all other options,” JPMorgan said in a statement about its claim against WRL.
“Despite this dispute, we believe in Viva Wallet, its people, our strategic investment in the company and our wider business in Greece.”
Representatives for Karonis and WRL declined to comment.
Additional reporting by Joshua Franklin in New York
