Monitise is launching its FINkit partner program with a roomful of fintech heavyweights. FINkit is a cloud-based platform and toolkit that enables banks to collaborate with fintech firms and gain access to technologies and services such as tokenization, geolocation, biometric security, and digital wallets.
In addition to founding partner and fellow Finovate alum MasterCard (F14, FD14), Monitise has signed up another 12 founding FINkit members including another six Finovate/FinDEVr alums:
- BehavioSec (F15, FD15)
- Currencycloud (F16, FD15)
- Envestnet | Yodlee (F16, FD16)
- Experian (F16)
- Fastacash (F14)
- FICO (FD16)
- HID Global
- iGeolise
- LivePerson
- MYPINPAD
- Syniverse
- WorldFirst
Mark Barnett, president of MasterCard U.K. and Ireland, says FINkit is “a fantastic platform for banks and partners to come together in a live production environment to deliver innovative services—securely, reliably, and quickly.” Nick Cheetham, Monitise-FINkit managing director, says the kind of collaboration enabled by FINkit is “vital” and warned against allowing new technologies to “stagnate in banks’ ‘innovation theaters.'” Cheetham pledged that his founding group of partners “will enable significant progress to be made in digital service delivery.”
The news from Monitise adds to an increasingly positive year for the company. A new COO and business structure announced in May have been credited for lowering costs and turning a profit by fall. The company said that the launch of FINkit, which was developed using IBM’s Bluemix platform, also helped generate initial revenues.
Founded in 2003 and headquartered in London, Monitise went public in 2007. One of Finovate’s earliest alums, demoing in 2007, the company raised more than $309 million in post-IPO equity from investors including Banco Santander, First Eastern Investment Group, MasterCard, Telefonica, and Visa International Service Association. Former Deputy CEO and COO Lee Cameron was promoted to CEO in September 2015. The following month, Monitise announced a new cloud platform agreement “to explore potential projects” with telecom giant, Telefonica Digital.