Mastercard Acquires Minna Technologies

Mastercard Acquires Minna Technologies
  • Mastercard has agreed to acquire subscription management platform Minna Technologies. Terms were not disclosed.
  • Minna Technologies offers technology that enables users to manage their subscriptions from within their bank app or website, saving users millions of dollars in spending on unwanted subscriptions.
  • Minna Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2019. The company is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Terms were not disclosed. But Mastercard announced today that it has agreed to acquire Swedish subscription management platform Minna Technologies. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, will bring greater simplicity and clarity to the subscription process and help enhance the engagement between merchants and their customers.

“This is significant recognition of the strength, growth, and impact of Minna Technologies in powering the global subscription economy, partnering with top-tier banks, fintechs, and subscription businesses,” Minna Technologies CEO and Chair Amanda Mesler said. “We look forward to joining Mastercard’s world-class team and helping businesses to empower consumers with control, convenience, and flexibility in managing their subscriptions and recurring payments.”

Minna Technologies offers banks and other financial institutions a subscription management platform that enables users to take control over their subscriptions via an automatically generated overview of all the user’s recurring expenses. Individuals can use Minna to cancel unwanted subscriptions as well as identify and quickly switch to new utility service providers. Mastercard’s acquisition comes as the number of subscriptions globally has climbed to 6.8 billion, with analysts at Juniper Research expecting that number to climb to 9.3 billion by 2028.

That said, the experience of our subscription economy can be a mixed one for consumers. Changing, extending, or canceling a subscription is often much more difficult than it needs to be. Additionally, the proliferation of subscription-based services means that many people have trouble keeping track of what they subscribe to, and when those subscriptions will be renewed. In the U.S., for example, the average person has 4.5 subscriptions. Additionally, more than 85% of Americans say that they have at least one paid subscription that goes unused each month.

Minna provides a payment-scheme agnostic service that empowers subscribers to manage their subscriptions from within their banking apps and websites. Bringing this technology into Mastercard’s suite of offerings is yet another example of how some of the biggest companies in financial services are leveraging acquisitions to add new solutions – from account-to-account payment functionality to enhanced cybersecurity – to their product mix. To that point, just last week, we shared news that Mastercard rival Visa had agreed to acquire fraud prevention company (and Finovate alum) Featurespace.

Founded in 2014, Minna Technologies demoed its technology at FinovateEurope in 2019. Today, the Sweden-based company has connected with more than 22,000 subscription businesses, served more than 120 million retail bank and fintech users, and saved customers more than $1 billion in spending on unwanted subscriptions.


Photo by Shvets Anna

Minna Technologies Launches Merchant Solution for Fight Subscription Cancellations

Minna Technologies Launches Merchant Solution for Fight Subscription Cancellations
  • Minna Technologies has launched a new solution to help merchants recover revenue and re-engage customers who recently canceled subscriptions.
  • The new offering, Merchant Solutions, helps solve a pain point in which bank cards are often blocked during a subscription cancellation.
  • Merchant Solutions tackles the new reality of subscription management in which customers are more proactive toward both signing up for and cancelling subscription-based services.

Sweden-based subscription management infrastructure company Minna Technologies unveiled its new Merchant Solutions late last week. The solution will enable subscription-based businesses to recover revenue from customers who have recently canceled their service and who manage their subscriptions via their retail bank app.

“We are thrilled to allow the 20% of consumers who cancel with Minna to more easily return to the subscription service when it suits them; and to enable subscription businesses to more personally retarget these consumers with suitable offers,” Minna Technologies Chief Product Officer Tiama Hanson-Drury said. “Not every cancellation is a desire to sever ties with the merchant – often it is a call for increased flexibility or personalization. By keeping the channel open, merchants have the chance to evolve the customer relationship and reacquire the consumer.”

Minna Technologies’ new solution also helps merchants deal with an unintended consequence of consumer protection efforts that require banks to support subscription payment management, especially with regard to unidentified or unintended payments. Sometimes, the subscription cancellation process results in the customer’s bank card being blocked to prevent future wrongful payments. Minna Technologies cited a study by Experian Insights that indicated that almost 80% of those who try to re-establish their subscriptions within three months after canceling have found that their bank cards have been blocked. This friction can be enough to cause the customer to abandon the attempt to resubscribe to the service.

To this end, Minna will offer a new “unblock” feature that facilitates communication between banks and subscription businesses to unblock bank cards in instances when banks have confidence that no wrongful payments will be reattempted by the business. This block removal service will help alleviate operational issues and the potential for poor customer service when payments are automatically blocked during subscription cancellation. Minna noted that the Unblock feature is one example of the kind of assistance the company is developing for subscription-based merchants with other solutions, including a way to prevent cancellations in the first place, to be offered in the near future.

Minna Technologies’ new offering also responds to the challenge of what Minna Technologies’ VP of Sales, Partnerships and Solutions Erica Katsambis referred to as the “rise of new subscription personas”. These personas reflect a growing assertiveness on the part of consumers who are more likely to be proactive in expressing their digital preferences than consumers of even a few years ago.

“From the ‘lost, confused, and angry’ who are disengaged and canceling via their bank, to the ‘savvy’ consumers switching subscriptions regularly or those consumers happy to try out many new subscriptions, they all demand more from their subscriptions,” Katsambis explained. “It is more important than ever to diversify and bolster digital channels and functionality to retain users, grow your customer base, and prevent unwanted churn.”

Minna Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2019. In the time since then, the company has forged partnerships with ING Belgium, Lloyds Bank, and Danske Bank; earned recognition as an Inclusive Fintech 50 member; and raised more than $23 million in funding. Late last year, Minna launched its “1-click” subscription management solution. Early this year, the company announced the appointment of new board chairwoman, Amanda Mesler.


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Minna Technologies Raises More than $18 Million in Funding

Minna Technologies Raises More than $18 Million in Funding

Sweden-based Minna Technologies has secured more than $18 million (€15.5 million) in new funding to help bring its subscription management technology to more banks around the world. The Series B round was led by Element Ventures, and featured participation from MiddleGame Ventures, Nineyards Equity, and Visa. Minna Technologies now has raised more than $27 million (€23 million) in funding.

“Over the past four years, the subscription economy has exploded from Spotify and Netflix to even iPhones and cars,” Minna Technologies co-founder and CEO Joakim Sjöblom explained. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to keep track of the payments and harder for banks to handle inquiries to shut them down. Minna’s tech improves the procedure for banks by simplifying the process, as well as providing an in-demand digital product that consumers are starting to expect from their financial institutions.”

Minna Technologies enables banks to offer their customers a better way to manage what analysts say are an average of 11 monthly subscriptions valued at €333 a month for European consumers. Rather than having to deal with each vendor or merchant separately, users of Minna’s solution can manage subscriptions directly via their banking app. The technology will also notify subscribers when free trial offers are nearing expiration to help users avoid accidental overpayment. Minna said that its technology has helped retail banking customers at partners Swedbank and ING save more than €40 million.

The subscription economy – driven by demand for products and services like online streaming and on-demand shopping – has grown by more than 3.5x since 2012, the company noted. A growing number of companies in the pre-digital economy are also taking advantage of the subscription model. As one example, automaker Volvo introduced a subscription service in the U.K., Care by Volvo, last fall. The new offering includes servicing, road tax, and maintenance as part of its “genuine, flexible alternative” to car ownership.

Element Ventures partner Michael McFadgen praised Minna as a company that was “revolutionizing financial services” for consumers and highlighted the ability of fintech innovation to provide banks with potential additional revenue streams, as well. “This is a clear example of the liberating services Open Banking promised us and we’re excited to be part of this journey with Minna,” McFadgen said.

Founded in 2016, Minna Technologies demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2019 in Berlin, Germany. Last summer, the company announced a partnership with ING Belgium, enabling the bank’s 1.8 million customers to manage their subscription commitments without leaving the bank portal.


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Five Ways Partnerships Between Banks and Fintechs Help Drive Innovation

Five Ways Partnerships Between Banks and Fintechs Help Drive Innovation

To steal a line from Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock, when it comes to innovation in fintech, it takes two to make a thing go right. Whether the “thing” is an end-to-end digital transformation or creating the technology infrastructure to enable firms to build and market their own innovations, collaboration and partnership with fintechs increasingly seems to be the path that the most forward-looking banks and other financial institutions are pursuing.

With this in mind, here’s a look at some of the more interesting recent partnership announcements over the past month – with an eye toward what these collaborations might be saying about the near-term future of fintech.

DBS Bank: Headquartered in Singapore. Total assets of $420 billion (SGD 579 billion) in 2019. Largest bank in Southeast Asia. Operates in 18 markets around the world.

  • Partner: Infor
  • Project: Digital trade financing
  • Objective: Faster “more cost efficient” financing for the 68,000+ SMEs on Infor’s Nexus network.

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC): Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Has 17 million clients in Canada, the U.S., and 34 other countries. Total assets of $1.2 trillion (1.49 trillion CAD) as of 2019.

  • Partner: Red Hat, Nvidia
  • Project: In-house, AI-based private cloud platform
  • Objective: The new build will allow the bank to develop “transformative intelligent applications” and to bring those solutions to market faster.

Orange: Telecommunications corporation headquartered in Paris, France. Fourth largest telecom in Europe and one of the ten largest in the world with 26 million customers. Total assets of $124 billion (€106 billion) and revenues of $49 billion (€42 billion) as of 2019.

  • Partner: Temenos, NSIA
  • Project: Orange Bank Africa launch
  • Objective: Partnership will bring savings and micro credit services to underserved customers in Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal.

Lloyds Banking Group Headquartered in London, U.K., Lloyds is the country’s largest digital bank with 16.9 million active customers online and 11.5 million on mobile. Founded in 1765, the bank currently has total assets of more than $1 billion (£833 billion).

  • Partner: Form3
  • Project: Along with partners Google Cloud and Microsoft, Form3 will help the U.K.-based bank “investigate and develop” a cloud-payments-as-a-service platform.
  • Objective: The collaboration, which also includes a minority equity stake in Form3, will simplify Lloyd’s payment capabilities and support enhanced data and new overlay services.

Banca Ifis: Specialty commercial and corporate banking firm for SMEs headquartered in Venice, Italy. The firm has more than 130,000 retail clients in the country, and online funding and deposits totaling more than $4.7 billion (€4 billion).

  • Partner: Raisin
  • Project: New deposit products
  • Objective: Raisin’s customers in Germany will gain access to deposit solutions available from Banca Ifis. The collaboration will enable German customers to take advantage of relatively higher interest rates available in Italy.

Other fintech/financial institution partnerships of note this month:


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Minna Technologies to Power Subscription Management Service for ING

Minna Technologies to Power Subscription Management Service for ING

Banking customers at ING Belgium will soon have help managing their recurring expenses. That’s because Minna Technologies has partnered with the bank to launch a new subscription management service.

Under the agreement, ING Belgium’s 1.8 million digital banking customers will be able to manage their subscriptions without leaving the digital banking channel. Minna’s solution helps users view all of their recurring subscriptions in a single place, allows them to cancel existing subscriptions, and shows them potential alternatives to some of their subscriptions.

“This is a clear example of impactful Fintech partnerships that we aim to scale within ING,” said Global Head of ING Labs & Fintechs, Olivier Guillaumond. “It will offer a differentiating experience to our customers allowing them to have a better insight into their subscriptions and save millions of euros via cancellation and fully automated switching services.”

The integration is the result of Minna Technologies’ participation in last year’s ING Labs Brussels program. During the program, the two companies completed a proof-of-concept that demonstrated the value of subscription management for users in the Benelux region.

“ING Labs Brussels is a special purpose vehicle concentrating on validating proof of concepts with mature fintechs to bring maximum value for our clients so they can stay a step ahead in their lives,” said Guillaumond, adding that it has “the potential to expand to other countries.”

Minna was founded in 2016 and has since helped users save more than $45 million with its subscription management solutions. The Sweden-based company, which has raised $6.2 million, recently demoed at FinovateEurope 2019. ING Brussels joins SpareBank1, Visa, Swedbank, and Danske Bank as clients.


Photo by Morning Brew on Unsplash

Minna Technologies Teams Up with OP Financial Group

Minna Technologies Teams Up with OP Financial Group

Minna Technologies, a Swedish banking tech start-up, has sealed a partnership deal with OP Financial Group, Finland’s largest financial group, reports Tanya Andreasyan of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The two companies first started working together in 2018 at OP’s Open Banking Startup Partnership Programme, and the latest deal is the extension of that collaboration.

Minna Technologies is an authorised Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP) and Account Information Service Provider (AISP), operating under the supervision of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA).

Using Minna’s tech, OP will be able to better to capitalize on its Open Banking Strategy and PSD2 APIs developed for third-party providers, the vendor says. CEO Joakim Sjöblom described OP as “a leader in the Finnish market in terms of innovation, customer focus, and delivery of excellent customer experience.”

“This partnership is a great example of the importance of finding the right match in partners,” said Masa Peura, SVP of payments and personal finance management at OP, adding that the bank was “impressed by Minna Technologies’ innovation and technical capabilities.”

As for the tech firm, taking part in OP’s start-up program was “a great opportunity to get to know the OP organization, validate the technical approach, as well as the need for subscription management in the Finnish market,” said John Nyström, country manager for Finland at Minna Technologies.

Starting as a consumer application for subscription management (Mina Tjänster) in 2016, Minna Technologies has grown since to become an integrated platform for retail banks and service providers in the Nordics to improve the digital banking experience.

The company said its subscription management platform has saved more than €30 million on behalf of its users. Swedbank, SpareBank 1 and Danske Bank are all on its client list.

Minna Technologies demonstrated its subscription management platform for banks to offer to their customers, Minna Tech, at FinovateEurope 2019. The technology provides users with an automated overview of their subscription accounts and all recurring charges, making it easier for them to cancel unwanted subscriptions as well as switch to other providers that offer a better value for their services.

Minna Technologies has raised $6.2 million in funding from investors including Zenith Group and Swedbank.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

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Around the web

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This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

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  • SME Challenger Bank Recognise Signs on Mambu.
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Around the web

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  • Lendio named to MountainWest Capital Network’s 2019 Utah 100 List.
  • Square leverages DriveWealth’s trading API to compete with the likes of Robinhood.
  • Signicat now offers identity verification in 208 countries through identity document scanning, web-based video interviews, and NFC scanning of passports.
  • SpareBank1 to leverage Minna Technologies to help customers cancel their unwanted subscriptions.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

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Around the web

  • Multiple Finovate alums listed on Growjo’s list of 10,000 fastest growing companies.
  • Minna Technologies partners with Visa to enable subscription management through European retail banks.
  • Trust Science partners with Inovatec Systems Corporation to release an automated lending platform.
  • BeSmartee integrates with LoanBeam to streamline the mortgage loan application process.
  • Lendio CEO Brock Blake named EY Entrepreneur Of The Year finalist.
  • Revolut goes live in Australia as beta offering.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Minna Technologies Raises $6.3 Million

Minna Technologies Raises  $6.3 Million

Subscription management tool for online banks Minna Technologies just announced it has received a $6.3 million (€5.6 million) investment, bringing its total funding to almost $9 million.

Zenith Group led the round, followed by Visa and existing investor Swedbank. Minna will use the funds to increase its presence in Europe. To support these plans, the company will bolster its team and open a new office in Europe.

“This investment round makes it possible for us to scale up and execute on our European expansion plans. As many European banks have started to embrace FinTech partnerships, we have seen a dramatic increase in the interest of our subscription management platform,” said Minna CEO and Cofounder Joakim Sjöblom. “Our current bank partnerships have proved that subscription management is well received by banking customers and that it is an essential part of digital banking.”

Founded in 2014, Minna originally began as a consumer-facing app for subscription management, then launched as a bank-integrated platform in 2016. Since then, the company has helped consumers save more than $33.5 million in unwanted subscriptions. The company is partnered with several top-tier banks across Europe, including Swedbank and Danske bank, and has a pilot agreement with OP bank.

Sjöblom demoed Minna at FinovateEurope 2019 in London. The company is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden and has 34 employees. In 2017, the company’s revenues totaled $536,000.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Jumio Teams Up with TruNarrative to Fight Financial Crime.
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  • Minna Technologies Raises $6.3 Million.

Around the web

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  • Akamai launches Enterprise Defender to help customers secure all enterprise applications and users.
  • Kabbage to power loans for Azlo small business clients.
  • Lighter Capital has financed more than $150 million in 500+ rounds of revenue-based financing to over 300 startups.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • eToro Buys Blockchain Company Firmo.

Around the web

  • ING Belgium and ING Netherlands invite Minna Technologies to participate in the ING FinTech Village accelerator.
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  • Pitchbook ranks OurCrowd as most active Israeli VC firm in terms of the number of deals.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.