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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Ant Group unveiled a digital bank called ANEXT Bank focused on serving SMEs.
ANEXT Bank is soft launching today and will be widely available in the third quarter of this year.
ANEXT Bank is collaborating with Proxtera, a Singapore company that broadens access to global trade.
China tech giant Ant Group announced the launch of its own digital bank, ANEXT Bank, in Singapore.
ANEXT Bank is a digital wholesale bank focused on serving micro businesses and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, ANEXT will focus on facilitating cross-border operations for growth and global expansion.
The ANEXT business account, which will be available to SMEs in the third quarter of this year, will offer a dual-currency deposit account with remote onboarding, daily interest, and other features. The bank is soliciting ideas for other features from the public. “We believe in building solutions around your needs,” the company said on its website. “So tell us what you want from financial services. Because it’s time to bring about what’s next.”
ANEXT Bank CEO Toh Su Mei described that SMEs are doing business via digital channels and financial services organizations must meet them where they are. She added that ANEXT’s “open and collaborative” approach is key to providing SMEs with financial services that are simpler, safer, and more rewarding.
“Continuous innovation and new capabilities that digital banks are slated to bring will no doubt add more engines of growth to Singapore’s financial sector,” said Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Chief Fintech Officer Sopnendu Mohanty. “MAS expects the digital banks to thrive and synergize with our dynamic financial institutions and raise the bar in delivering quality financial services, and to uplift Singapore’s financial sector to better support the growth of SMEs in Singapore, the region and in emerging markets.”
Along with its collaboration with MAS, ANEXT also signed a two-year collaboration agreement with Proxtera, a Singapore company that broadens access to global trade. The two plan to facilitate cross-border trade among SMEs by leveraging embedded financing and fulfillment services to make marketplaces efficient and more discoverable globally.
“Seamless access and availability of trade financing solutions will help amplify business growth and accelerate expansion for SMEs,” said Proxtera CEO Saurav Bhattacharyya. “This mission is closely aligned with ANEXT Bank’s focus to serve SMEs engaging in cross-border operations. Together with ANEXT Bank’s digital-born identity and digital-first capabilities and services, I’m confident that we can make trade easier, more seamless, and efficient for SMEs.”
The fintech industry talks a lot about bank-fintech and fintech-bank relationships. Everyone in this industry will proudly declare how essential these partnerships are for everyone in the value chain. However, the recent introduction of crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) is complicating things. How can a traditional financial (TradFi*) institution like a bank align itself with a DeFi startup or get involved in crypto?
For insight, we spoke with Sila CEO and Founder Shamir Karkal. Karkal co-founded Simple, one of the first digital banks, in 2009 and sold the company to BBVA in 2017. The following year, Karkal founded Sila, a company that offers banking, digital wallet, and ACH payments APIs to help companies integrate with the U.S. banking system and blockchain quickly, securely, and in compliance.
In our conversation, Karkal highlights the intersection between TradFi and DeFi and examines ways the two can work together while still regarding necessary compliance measures.
What are some ways you are currently seeing crypto businesses and TradFi organizations interacting?
Shamir Karkal: Unquestionably, crypto is becoming part of life. It is becoming part of everyday finance. We had a massive crypto boom in 2021 and now we are experiencing a crypto bust. But public markets and fintechs have performed equally as bad – or worse – than crypto. Over the last few years, traditional finance has been waking up to the crypto space. They take it seriously now.
During mid-to-late 2020, most TradFi organizations thought of crypto as a passing fad, a new dotcom boom. Today, there is no more dismissal of it. The top levels of large banks understand that crypto is here to stay – that it is an important part of the future of finance. Clearly, how this future will look in detail is still to be seen. Some TradFi organizations have embraced crypto whole-heartedly, such as Cross River bank and Silvergate bank, but there are also others still on the fence.
Crypto has scaled dramatically in 2021, which – ironically, some might say – has made crypto businesses appreciate traditional finance a lot more. They are not fans, not by a long shot. But, for example, they understand that compliance is not optional, and that one needs to comply with the law in one’s jurisdiction. As crypto businesses matured, reality has set in partially because when you‘re big, ignoring the law is not an option. In fact, crypto businesses often have a better understanding of regulations than fintechs. Because most answers are subject to change in the world of crypto, participants need to understand and follow very closely how things evolve.
Some of the largest TradFi organizations such as JPMorgan went as far as launching their own stablecoin (JPMcoin). All are going to have similar projects. In my view, big banks have no ability to compete head-to-head with anybody in the crypto space. However, they are perfectly positioned to provide services to the winners in the crypto space– to the big exchanges, the big processors. All of those firms need all the services that traditional finance provides. Providing financial services to crypto winners is where the money is to be made. The foundation of the future of finance is still the financial services that today are supporting any other businesses.
What types of partnerships do you expect to see in the future?
Karkal: To partner is in the interest of both crypto and traditional financial institutions. Crypto businesses are using traditional finance to broaden and speed up adoption of crypto services. True, a lot of people want to get into crypto. Still, everyone who does today has money in a bank account or a debit card. Even if your business is all about crypto, you need to create the bridge to allow people to move money from here to there.
When it comes to regulation, what do banks need to look for when partnering with crypto startups?
Karkal: In technology or crypto, it is often said that you need to look for teams who move fast and break things. That is not true in banking. Banks need to look for projects that have good teams, are well funded, and where teams have an understanding of the compliance issues they will face. Because you can only develop a plan to deal with problems after they are recognized. One key question to ask is, “Do you have an opinion from an experienced lawyer?”
My advice is to look for real teams with real people that are serious about a long-term relationship. Beware! There are plenty of scams out there. Don’t support people who are only interested in making a quick buck, or the next ponzi coin (a real thing).
Crypto is also fraught with fraud. There are many, many different types of fraud: fraudulent businesses, payments fraud, ACH fraud, etc. Banks have been combatting these issues longer than crypto businesses. They stand to know more about them and can help. The key is to identify crypto businesses that built out the necessary capabilities, and that get advice from the good lawyers in the space. That’s a good litmus test.
How can banks position themselves as good partners for crypto companies?
Karkal: The key is to figure out which products and services the bank is willing to offer. That sounds basic, but a bank has to ask itself if it is willing to service a crypto company. Is it ready to be their corporate bank? To do payment processing? To be a custodian for their funds, or their customers’ funds? After figuring out what a bank is willing to do, the second step is to go do it with some startups. Some banks act as if they want to partner with crypto businesses, but then their compliance processes are so onerous, it just won’t work. They end up standing in their own way. My advice is: if you’re serious, go do it with a couple of crypto companies first before making a big marketing push. If you’re successful, word will spread through Discord or Telegram channels. And, suddenly, you’ll find other projects and companies that will be coming to you.
Here is the rap. The question is really, “Can you get to the point of opening an account?” Remember: crypto businesses do not have the profile of traditional customers. It might come as a Delaware subsidiary of a company registered in the Cayman Islands with senior people sitting all over the world. As a highly regulated bank, what is your process for this setup? You need to figure out your compliance piece to make such a setup work.
I know of crypto businesses that are public companies abroad, are serious players, and yet have trouble opening corporate bank accounts in the U.S. As a bank, you need to understand that there is one thing crypto businesses don’t have: patience. They won’t wait 12 months while a bank’s internal committee rejects their application for the 13th time because they have a subsidiary in the British Virgin Islands that’s on a black list somewhere. You as a bank need to figure out this and related processes first, before your sales people are soliciting crypto businesses.
*TradFi refers to traditional financial institutions as well as fintechs.
Open banking platform TrueLayer is partnering with cross-border payments company Thunes.
Thunes will integrate TrueLayer’s open banking technology into its platform, making open banking available as a payment method.
TrueLayer helps 100,000 merchants across the U.K., Europe, and Australia power open banking payments experiences that connect payments, data, and identity.
In the U.K., open banking is the rule, rather than the exception. So today’s partnership between open banking platform TrueLayer and cross-border payments company Thunes is targeting the right geography. Through today’s partnership, the two firms aim to streamline and improve the payment experience of consumers in the U.K. and Europe.
“Open banking payments are gaining momentum not only in the U.K. but also in the rest of Europe, and we really believe that this strong partnership with TrueLayer, a leader in the field, will help to move forward and make this new definition of smart payment a reality for all,” said Thunes Managing Director Christophe Bourbier.
Thunes will integrate TrueLayer’s open banking technology into its platform, making open banking available as a payment method for its 100,000 merchants. TrueLayer’s open banking payment technology bypasses traditional card networks and their associated fees, which helps merchants offer a faster and more cost-effective payments experience that reduces both fraud and chargebacks.
“Open banking is rapidly moving to the mainstream, as more merchants adopt account-to-account payments thanks to their ability to deliver significant cost savings, enhanced security, and speed of settlement when compared to other payment methods,” said TrueLayer Head of Payment Partnerships Mariko Beising. “Thunes has a track record of adopting and optimizing the latest payments options for its customers, so they can focus on running their business. Implementing open banking is the next logical step and we believe that together we can deliver significant value to merchants across Europe through a trusted partner.”
Thunes was founded in 2016 as TransferTo and rebranded to Thunes in 2019. The company offers a cross-border payments and collection network that supports 79 currencies, enables payments to 130 countries, and offers 300 payment acceptance methods. Among the company’s use cases are cross-border payments, business payments, virtual payments, and virtual account issuance. Headquartered in Singapore, Thunes also has offices in London, Paris, Shanghai, New York, Dubai, Nairobi, Arizona, and Barcelona.
TrueLayer helps businesses across the U.K., Europe, and Australia power open banking payments experiences that connect payments, data, and identity to help people spend, save, and transact online. The company was founded in 2016 and is connected to thousands of financial institutions across the U.K. and Europe. Last September, TrueLayer landed a $130 million investment that boosted the company’s total funding to $272 million.
Financial services firm PwC and tech giant Microsoft are leveraging digital banking solutions provider FintechOS to create a digital banking solution.
The group aims to help banks adapt and modernize their operations to fit into the digital-first era.
“This will drive a massive improvement in time-to-value, and the extensibility of digital banking growth and expansion,” said PwC Partner Akhilesh Khera.
In the fintech industry, third party partnerships are king. So it’s not surprising to see the news that financial services firm PwC and tech giant Microsoft are tapping into the expertise of digital banking solutions provider FintechOS.
The trio announced their partnership, which will leverage FintechOS’ expertise, PwC’s digital banking prowess, and Microsoft’s Cloud for Financial Services technology to create a digital banking solution aimed at helping financial institutions adapt and modernize their operations to fit into the digital-first era.
For its part, FintechOS will be crucial in providing banking and investment, customer management, and integration and orchestration services. “We are delighted to be playing a key role in this ground-breaking initiative, as it demonstrates both the market-leading capability of our high-productivity fintech infrastructure and the strength of our relationship with PwC,” said FintechOS VP of Ecosystem Sales at EMEATodiPruteanu. “We are excited about the opportunity to work closely with and actively support PwC as this proposition revolutionizes banking across the globe.”
PwC Partner Akhilesh Khera said that the firm selected FintechOS for the company’s high-productivity infrastructure. “This will drive a massive improvement in time-to-value, and the extensibility of digital banking growth and expansion,” explained Khera.
U.K.-based FintechOS was founded in 2017 to help companies quickly launch and manage products and services across lending, savings, insurance, investment, and embedded finance. By helping financial services companies replace their core banking infrastructure operations, FintechOS also helps companies reduce costs, modernize operations, and deploy modern customer journeys that meet today’s standard expectations of great customer experience.
In March of this year, FintechOS launched a pair of accelerators to help financial institutions support their small business clients. Earlier this month, the company unveiled its spring release, which contained a digital retail mortgage and BNPL features. FintechOS demoedSunglow, a banking super app at FinovateFall 2021. Teo Blidarus is co-founder and CEO.
Sweden-based account-to-account payments specialist Trustly will acquire U.K.-based open banking payments platform Ecospend.
Trustly anticipates the deal will help accelerate its move into the U.K. market.
Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Global payments fintech Trustly announced plans to acquire U.K.-based open banking payments platform Ecospend this week. Trustly anticipates that the deal, which will close for an undisclosed amount, will complement the company’s account-to-account (A2A) payments platform and accelerate its rollout in the U.K.
The U.K. is a key geographical market for Sweden-based Trustly. The company set a goal to be the market leader in the U.K., and today’s acquisition accelerates Trustly’s journey towards that target. “I am delighted to welcome Ecospend to Trustly,” said Trustly CEO Johan Tjärnberg. “This is a perfect strategic fit and I am convinced that it will enable us to deliver a market-leading product in the U.K., allowing us to capture opportunities and accelerate our current U.K. expansion.”
Ecospend was founded in 2017 and is now a regulated A2A payments provider for the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Leveraging this certification, the company seeks to power open banking payments and financial data services. In the past year, Ecospend has processed over $6.3 billion (£5 billion) in A2A payments to over two million consumers. The company connects with 80+ U.K. banks, making it a valuable asset to Trustly’s A2A payments service.
“We will continue to leverage our market-leading technology and bank connectivity in the U.K. and, together with Trustly, broaden our capabilities to stretch across Europe and further markets,” said Ecospend Founder Metin Erkman. “We are really excited to join the Trustly family.”
Trustly was founded in 2008 and offers a simple A2A payments platform that doesn’t require the user to sign up, enter their card or bank numbers, or provide any billing information. From a merchant perspective, Trustly offers a card-not-present payments experience that provides a secure way for consumers to transact using their online banking credentials. The A2A nature of the payments experience is superior to traditional card payments because it offers stronger user authentication, higher approval rates, and guarantees payments with no risk of chargebacks.
A FinovateEurope 2017 alum, Trustly works with more than 8,100 merchants, helping them connect with 525 million consumers and 6,300 banks across 30 countries.
National Australia Bank is launching its own BNPL tool called NAB Now Pay Later.
The bank’s BNPL offering will not charge late fees, interest, or account fees.
NAB expects to have a leg up on third party tools because, as NAB Group Executive Personal Banking Rachel Slade explained, “We know their banking and credit history and we’re assessing them based on our existing banking relationship.”
National Australia Bank is making its way into the buy now, pay later (BNPL) game. The bank announced this week that its customers can pre-register to use its BNPL tool, which is called NAB Now Pay Later.
NAB’s BNPL offering will enable customers to split online and in-person purchases of up to $1,000 into four payments. The bank will not charge late fees, interest, or account fees for the service.
NAB Group Executive Personal Banking Rachel Slade described NAB Now Pay Later as “safer” than competing third-party tools. “These are already our customers,” she explained. “We know their banking and credit history and we’re assessing them based on our existing banking relationship.”
From the consumer perspective, one of the biggest benefits of using a BNPL tool from their own bank is that the credit decisioning process is instant. “In the time it takes for a customer to go from the fitting room to the register, we’ve assessed their application, undertaken a credit check and opened an account with a virtual card so they’re ready to purchase,” said Slade.
Customers can pre-register today for NAB Now Pay Later, which is expected to launch in July.
Open banking expert Yapily and B2B BNPL player Two have paired up.
Norway-based Two will leverage Yapily data, eliminating the need for businesses to fill out forms when paying with BNPL.
“With Yapily and open banking, we can provide a safer, cheaper, and easier financial bridge for businesses that are ready to move forward,” said Two Head of Product Deane Barton.
Yapily, a fintech that seeks to help businesses enhance their offering by embedding open banking into their products and services, announced its newest plan to help small businesses succeed.
The U.K.-based company is joining forces with Norwegian BNPL player Two to fuel data for Two’s B2B BNPL tool. “We’re working with Two to ease the cash flow burden for SMEs by offering alternative ways to access credit with BNPL and open banking,” Yapily said in a blog post.
Small businesses making online purchases can use Two at checkout to pay 14 to 90 days after they make their purchase. To make the process easy on the business client, Two leverages Yapily data to retrieve the buyer’s account information, including their name and date of birth, to verify their identity and approve the purchase. Not only does it take place in real time, but the data integration also eliminates the need for businesses to fill out multiple forms.
“With Yapily and open banking, we can provide a safer, cheaper, and easier financial bridge for businesses that are ready to move forward,” said Two Head of Product Deane Barton. “The intersection between BNPL and open banking is an exciting place to be. Together, we are shaping the future of financial services as we know it.”
The small business BNPL technology serves as an alternative to a working capital loan for the business client. The tool also has the potential to benefit the merchant. According to Two, e-commerce platforms that offer Two as a payment method can see up to a 60% increase in average order value and a 20% rise in the percentage of site visitors that make a purchase.
Yapily has raised $18.4 million since it was founded in 2017. The company enables its clients to access data in 15 countries across Europe, and at more than 180 financial institutions. Stefano Vaccino is founder and CEO.
Through today’s partnership, Yapily’s open banking capabilities will initially be rolled out to Two customers across the U.K., with more European markets to follow. Two has raised $3 million since it was founded in 2020.
We’ve seen some bad news in the tech sector lately. YCombinator is asking its portfolio founders to “plan for the worst” and prepare for a downturn and Klarna is laying off 10% of its employees. Headlines such as, “Tech’s High-Flying Startup Scene Gets a Crushing Reality Check” aren’t helping consumer or investor sentiment, either. It can be tough to remain optimistic.
The good news is that the fintech industry is resilient. So amid the recent onslaught of disheartening news, here are four reasons you can be optimistic about fintech right now.
DeFi is promising
Fintech’s future is bright, and one shining light is decentralized finance (DeFi). It’s hard to know the exact implications DeFi will have on banks, fintechs, and other traditional financial (TradFi) organizations.
However, it’s clear that decentralizing traditional operations such as money transfers and loans will make a more efficient financial system. What’s more, DeFi is poised to help the 1.7 billion unbanked individuals across the globe benefit from financial services they’ve previously never had access to.
The best innovations are born when times get tough
It’s true that necessity is the mother of invention. Whether it’s an economic downturn, a pandemic, or a crisis in a different form, difficult times have proven to motivate people to develop creative solutions. This can be seen in countless examples from the COVID Recession of 2020. After the COVID pandemic hit, businesses were forced to figure out a way to convert their offering or service into the digital channel. In fact, many fintech companies grew while firms in other sectors were forced to make major cuts.
With new crises come new issues, and new problems that businesses and consumers need help solving. A bear market or an economic downturn would be no different; the best innovations are yet to come.
Still room for improvement
Because the fintech industry is relatively nascent, many of the problems the industry set out to solve still exist. In a piece we published earlier this month titled, “Has Fintech Failed?” we took a look at all of the ways fintech is failing to help consumers and businesses. As a few examples, underbanked populations are still lacking quality financial solutions, there are no open banking mandates in the U.S., fraud is rampant, and digital identity is flawed. The good news is that this leaves a lot of room for improvement, and therefore a lot of room for new competitors.
Fintech is here for a reason
When all is said and done, fintech is made to help individuals and businesses better manage their finances and more easily access financial services. Because money is not an optional tool for survival in the modern economy, financial services companies have a unique ability to help others through a recession or slowdown in their own industry. This pervasiveness makes for endless opportunities for banks, fintechs, and DeFi alike.
The fintech industry is not just here to serve financial services organizations, but rather to help people in this world that need financial services the most. That’s why we’re here, and it’s certainly something to be optimistic about.
The company’s business customers will be able to browse the new digital store to find and integrate third party apps into their own operations.
Businesses will be able to develop and launch their own custom apps within their own company.
Ecommerce technology company Stripelaunched an offering that will help businesses tap the technology from third parties to enhance their own offerings. The new launch, the Stripe App Marketplace, is a digital store where businesses can browse popular third-party tools.
Integrating third party tools into their own solution enables businesses to customize Stripe. Adding multiple operations under their Stripe account also enables businesses to automatically share contextual information across apps.
As Mailchimp Chief Product and Design Officer Jon Fasoli explained, “Let’s say, for example, a business owner wants to automate a targeted message when a customer makes a purchase, sending them a specific discount offer to encourage repeat purchases. The Mailchimp app automatically syncs this customer’s information between Stripe and Mailchimp, streamlining their operations and saving them time.”
Mailchimp is one of more than 50 app providers that are launching in the Stripe App Marketplace. Others include DocuSign, Dropbox, Intercom, Mailchimp, Ramp, and Xero. Stripe plans to add apps from more third party providers in the future.
The marketplace isn’t just limited to third party providers. Businesses can enlist their own developers to create custom apps within the Stripe App Marketplace to use within their company.
”With Stripe Apps, businesses can customize Stripe with their SaaS tools to best serve their customers,” said Stripe Apps Head of Product Bowen Pan. “We’re excited for this new chapter and can’t wait to see the ingenuity of all the apps that developers will build in the months and years ahead.”
Banking technology provider Temenos is launching ESG Investing-as-a-service.
The tool will help banks and wealth managers offer a digital experience that allows end customers to build an investment portfolio that reflects their values.
The move comes amid a time of major growth for ESG investing, which is expected to exceed $53 trillion by 2025.
ESG investing has been on the rise for the past couple of years. According to Bloomberg, money held in sustainable mutual funds and ESG-focused ETFs rose by 53% in 2021 to reach $2.7 trillion and ESG assets are on track to exceed $53 trillion by 2025. Banking software provider Temenos has taken note of this and is launching a new tool to help banks and wealth managers compete in the new environment.
Temenos’ ESG Investing-as-a-service, which can be run in the cloud or on-premise, combines Temenos’ market data management and digital capabilities such as filtering, scoring, and modeling techniques with external data feeds. The company generates easy-to-understand ratings to evaluate hundreds of ESG factors such as carbon footprint, water usage, diversity and gender equality, and executive compensation.
“At Temenos, our purpose is to power a world of banking that creates opportunities for everyone,” said Temenos Product Director of Wealth Alexandre Duret. “With the new ESG Investing service, we will help private banks and wealth managers to become compliant, and their customers invest with a purpose. Available as a service on our open platform for composable banking, it provides a fast track for our banking clients to launch innovative ESG investment products underpinned by robust, compliant processes, including new MiFID rules applicable in the EU from August 2022.”
Banks and wealth managers can leverage the tool to create ESG compliant products, with a lower cost of development. Ultimately, they can offer a digital experience that allows end customers to choose investments that they feel good about and build a portfolio that reflects their values.
Temenos serves 3,000+ banking and financial institutions worldwide representing 1.2 billion end customers. The Switzerland-based company has embedded sustainability practices into its own operations with ESG governance, reporting, and measurable targets. The Carbon Disclosure Project awarded Temenos an A- rating along with platinum recognition.
Auto loan refinance company Caribou received $115 million in Series C funding last week.
The company now boasts $190 million in total funding and touts a $1.1 billion valuation.
Caribou will use the funds to further invest in its platform, create new products, and expand its team.
Auto loan refinance company Caribouclosed on $115 million in an oversubscribed Series C funding round late last week. The investment brings the Washington, D.C.-based company’s total raised up to $190 million and boosts it into the fintech unicorn club with a valuation of $1.1 billion.
Goldman Sachs led the round, which drew contributions from new investors Innovius Capital and Harmonic. Existing investors, including Accomplice, CMFG Ventures, Curql Fund, Firebolt Ventures, Gaingels, Moderne Ventures, Motley Fool Ventures, and others also contributed.
Caribou will use today’s funding to further invest in its platform, create new products, and expand its team.
Formerly known as MotoRefi, Caribou was founded in 2016. The company helps its customers save an average of over $100 per month on their car payments by partnering with lenders and facilitating refinances. Caribou partnered with SoFi in April of last year to white-label its auto refinancing technology for SoFi’s 3.8 million customers. The company also offers a digital insurance marketplace that lets users browse quotes from a range of auto insurance providers.
“With the costs of car ownership soaring, and macroeconomic headwinds negatively impacting people’s finances, we believe that it’s more important than ever to help people save money,” said Innovius Capital CEO Justin Moore. “Caribou has established itself as the go-to platform to refinance their auto loan and we are excited for all that is to come.”
Over the past four years, Caribou has refinanced more than $1.5 billion in loans and scaled its workforce from 40 employees to 500. Kevin Bennett is CEO.
Blockchain-driven financial platform BlockFi has partnered with purchase-based intelligence firm Cardlytics to launch BlockFi Offers.
The new rewards program will enable BlockFi cardholders to earn up to 10% crypto back on select purchases.
BlockFi Offers rewards can be accrued on top of BlockFi’s existing 1.5% crypto back on all purchases.
Earning crypto is about to get easier for users of BlockFi, a blockchain-driven financial platform. That’s because the New Jersey-based company is partnering with purchase-based intelligence firm Cardlytics to launch a new rewards program called BlockFi Offers.
The BlockFi Offers rewards program will allow BlockFi’s Rewards Visa cardholders to earn up to 10% crypto back when they use their card to make purchases at select brands and restaurants. Participating retailers include Shake Shack, H&M, Finish Line, Costco, Meta Quest, Jared, and more.
“Partnering with BlockFI to bridge the gap between crypto and traditional financial institutions to deliver a flexible solution for their customers to shop, pay and be rewarded is very exciting,” said Cardlytics FI EVP Farrell Hudzik. “As blockchain and digital currencies become more accepted, it is imperative that we facilitate universal redemption opportunities.”
The crypto rewards launching today can be earned on top of BlockFi’s 1.5% crypto back on every purchase. Cardlytics automatically adds the offers to each cardholder’s BlockFi account at the end of every month.
Founded in 2017, BlockFi seeks to bridge the gap between cryptocurrencies and traditional financial and wealth management products. Since launching its Rewards Visa credit card, BlockFi has added more than 85,000 cardholders and distributed more than $26 million in crypto rewards to those users.
BlockFi Offers will be available to all BlockFi Rewards cardholders before the end of this month.
Cardlytics, which has been facilitating rewards and offers since launching in 2008, also helps marketers gain insight into consumer behavior by analyzing where and when consumers spend their money. The company went public on the NASDAQ under the ticker CDLX in 2018 and has a current market capitalization of $986 million.
