Amilon (gift card) is being taken over by the British multinational Tillo

The Zucchetti Group is selling its 50 per cent stake in Amilon, a leading SME in the issuance and distribution of digital gift cards, employee benefits and incentive technologies. The buyer is the British group Tillo, a global player in the gift card, rewards and incentives market. This creates a group that processes gift cards with a total value exceeding €3.5 billion and a growth target of 30 per cent year-on-year. Amilon’s two co-CEOs and founders, Andrea Verri and Fabio Regazzoni, together with CIO Renato Buontempo, are reinvesting in the business whilst retaining a minority stake in the controlling holding company, in which Tenzing – a pan-European investment firm specialising in private equity – is the majority shareholder. The managers will continue to lead Amilon, ensuring full strategic, operational and relationship continuity for clients and partners.

With its headquarters in Milan and offices in Madrid and Warsaw, Amilon was the first company to introduce digital gift cards in Italia. It has helped to build a market that is now central to strategies and technologies relating to incentives, employee engagement and corporate welfare. Turnover in 2025 stood at 609 million, compared with 455 the previous year. The acquisition represents a strategic step in Tillo’s international growth journey and creates an even stronger group in the rewards, incentives and gift card market. Together, Tillo and Amilon – now part of the Tillo Group led by CEO Alex Preece – form a leading global player, with a greater international presence, an even broader portfolio of brands and a strengthened capacity to support clients and partners across Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. Thanks to Amilon’s established expertise in fringe benefits and corporate welfare solutions within regulated European markets, the new group will be able to respond even more effectively to the needs of multinational companies seeking a single partner for the UK, Italia and Europe. At the same time, it will be able to offer brands new distribution opportunities in key international consumer markets.

“Over the last twenty years, Amilon has evolved from a company specialising in gift cards into a leading digital value platform, helping businesses to engage, reward and connect with people through an increasingly broad and diverse ecosystem of solutions,” say Andrea Verri and Fabio Regazzoni, co-founders of Amilon. This transaction represents the next step in that journey and reflects a shared ambition: to help shape the future of digital value, in which rewards, incentives, benefits and engagement operate in an integrated manner across markets and channels. By combining Tillo’s global technology with Amilon’s leadership in Southern Europe and its expertise in digital value solutions for incentives and engagement, we are creating a scalable platform capable of best serving multinational clients, brands and partners.”

The Zucchetti Group is selling its stake, a decision driven by a strategic repositioning. “Amilon was only partially aligned with the strategic scope of our core business,” said Alessandro Zucchetti, chairman of the Zucchetti Group. “ “Our commercial partnership will continue, as we consider Amilon’s solutions to be of high quality and will continue to promote them in the market.” Behind the transaction is Tenzing, a pan-European private equity fund and majority shareholder in the holding company controlling the Tillo Group, which invests in European B2B software and tech-enabled companies valued at up to 350 million euros, supporting them in their organic growth and through M&A transactions.

Tillo was advised by Clearwater Financial Services and EMC Corporate Finance as financial advisers and by Simmons & Simmons as legal advisers, whilst Amilon was advised by Intermonte as financial adviser and by Gianni & Origoni as legal advisers. The financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.