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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Birmingham, Alabama-based prepaid digital payment solution provider Prepaid Technologies has scored $96 million in funding. The round was led by Edison Partners and StepStone Group, and also featured participation from Stifel Venture Bank and Top Tier Capital Partners.
The company has enjoyed 15,000% straight-line growth in its load value, as well as revenue gains of 9x over the five years since it last raised capital – $5 million in 2016. Prepaid Technologies currently has 1,700+ customers and 450 active partners including banks, payroll processors, payment providers, as well as digital banking platforms, enterprise technology companies, and merchant services providers. The company’s technology enables its customers to access and customize both B2C and B2B payments for payroll, rewards, purchasing, and disbursement.
“We purpose-built our platform to create a turnkey way for companies to configure payments solutions across their enterprise however they operate,” Prepaid Technologies CEO Stephen Faust explained. “Clients access payments through our dashboard technology or integrate solutions into their workflows through our robust API suite. We’re laser-focused on productization and customization that will help to transition more companies to card-based and digital solutions.”
With financial services clients such as CertiPay, Rocket Mortgage, PNC Bank, and Cornerstone – and boasting customers like Delta, Lowe’s, and Samsung more broadly – Prepaid Technologies was founded in 1998. The company acquired Dash, the purchasing card portfolio and expense management solution from Finovate alum Karmic Labs, in 2019. Prepaid Technologies has leveraged this acquisition to launch its MyDashCard app and dashPerks, a cashback rewards program for cardholders.
Prepaid Technologies will use the new capital to fuel market expansion and to continue to develop both its technology payments platform and its customer-focused prepaid solutions. As part of this week’s investment, Edison Partners Managing Partner Chris Sugden will join Prepaid Technologies’ board of directors.
In a statement, Sugden underscored the unique opportunities available to companies like Prepaid Technologies in the current environment. “Loyalty payments and refund programs present an enormous niche opportunity,” Sugden said. “There is both a programmatic vertical opportunity and underserved community opportunity.” He praised the company’s “incredible load volume and data set” as well as the “deep banking and payments expertise” of Prepaid Technologies’ management team.
The latest round of Finovate Podcasts features four of the companies that won Best of Show awards at FinovateFall in September. A common theme in the conversations with most of these firms is the importance of customer engagement at a time in rapid digital adoption.
Below is a small sample of what Finovate VP and program host Greg Palmer and his guests are talking about. For more, be sure to check in for new episodes of the Finovate podcast every week.
“We often joke internally that we’re not your parent’s PwC and, as a collective customer transformation team, we’re constantly challenging ourselves to be more provocative in the way that we engage with technology, the experiences that we drive for our clients, and the insights that we deliver.”
“From a Horizn standpoint, we are absolutely focused on helping financial institutions to be able to achieve three key objectives: the first one is overachieving their digital growth goals, the second is successfully supporting mergers and new platform launches, and then the third component is driving mass adoption of new innovation and capabilities.”
“We’ve been doing this since 1994 through IC Banking, our digital channel platform that’s already implemented in more than 40 banks in Latin America and the Caribbean. We are helping people love their banks because we give them superior experiences with our digital channels. Today banks need to build loyalty through digital engagement. That’s why you need as a bank to have customers that love going to your application and your bank.”
“How fast could a mortgage be? At some point in the future, you’ll be able to get a mortgage in a couple of days. It’s harder to say when than to say what but, in theory, if you could process all of the information, and it’s all there available, you should be able to get a mortgage in a couple of days versus a month or more – what it takes today.”
Perhaps the biggest news in crypto today (besides Burger King’s announcement to give away Dogecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin) is that crypto investment firm Digital Currency Group (DCG) sold $700 million in stock, boosting its valuation to $10 billion.
The Wall Street Journal broke the news earlier today, noting that DCG’s sell-off is the second-largest in crypto history and makes DCG one of the highest-valued private companies in the sector.
The private sale was led by SoftBank and saw participation from Google, GIC Capital, and Rabbit Capital, who join previous investors Western Union, Bain Capital Ventures, Mastercard, and OMERS Ventures.
DCG has created its own subsidiaries, including digital currency asset manager Grayscale. The company also leverages M&A as part of its strategy, having snapped up blockchain news and research company CoinDesk and crypto exchange platform Luno. Among the many companies in DCG’s investment portfolio are eToro, Kraken, Ripple, and Veem.
DCG was founded in 2015 by Barry Silbert, who said that the deal will allow some early market players to close out their positions in the company and pocket the profits. The new investors are also expected to boost DCG’s technical and operational abilities and broaden its geographic reach. Silbert, who owns around 40% of DCG, has not sold any of his stock.
Before launching DCG, Silbert founded Finovate alum SecondMarket, a firm that enables private companies and investment funds to execute primary and secondary transactions. The company was acquired by Nasdaq in 2015.
“We’re excited to help the financial services industry find new ways to help consumers save, while living within their means,” Moven CRO Bryan Clagett said. “Banks and credit unions particularly, can differentiate by offering services that have immediate impact to consumers’ bottom line, while supporting their brand ambitions of acting as a financial advocate.”
ApexEdge uses actionable intelligence to spot and secure savings opportunities for consumers. Via its BillShark bill negotiation service, ApexEdge enables management and negotiation of a wide range of monthly bills including cable television, Internet, wireless, home security. The company says that it has provided more than 350,000 customers with a savings success rate of 85% and an average savings of $295. The partnership with ApexEdge only enhances the value that Moven offers its clients. The technology helps move financial wellness beyond turning data into actionable insights to tangibly saving customers money via cost savings not traditionally available through banks and credit unions.
“It is exciting to play a role in the financial wellness movement that the retail banking industry is embracing,” ApexEdge CEO Steven McKean said. “By partnering with innovative companies like Moven, banks and credit unions have access to the tools and technology to affect real, meaningful positive change in the daily lives of their customers and members.”
Moven’s bank-in-a-box solution enables banks and fintechs to launch a fully functional digital challenger bank in 90 days. The company’s platform uses both proprietary bank and third-party data to give institutions the ability to offer real-time insights for their digital banking customers. The platform’s features – such as Spend Meter, Savings Stash, and Spend by Category – further help customers get a more holistic view of their finances. The technology leverages open APIs and SDKs to provide scalability, optimize speed to market, and ensure an integration and launch that is both customizable and quick.
Moven founder Brett King joined Q2 VP of Strategic Solutions Rahm McDaniel in a demonstration of CorePro, the core processing platform behind Moven’s digital bank-in-a-box, at FinovateSpring 2021 in May. The technology is geared toward enabling community and regional banks, as well as credit unions, to compete with the digital-native offerings from challenger and neobanks.
Winner of Best Embedded Finance Solutionat this year’s 2021 Finovate Awards, ApexEdge was founded in 2020. Earlier this fall, the company announced that a new, financial wellness mobile app Upwise, offered by MetLife, would offer Billshark bill negotiation services among its initial suite of capabilities.
This week marks the beginning of Phase 3 of Brazil’s embrace of open banking. Phase 3 is the second-to-last stage of the implementation plan set out by the Brazilian Central Bank. According to reports, Phase 3 arrives about one month late – the original date was September 30th – but the changes that the newest phase of the open banking initiative will bring are significant enough to be worth the wait.
Divided into four parts, the goal of Phase 3 is to usher in the regulation of payment initiation from any online platform. This will initially involve enabling consumers to pay for products and services using PIX – without the consumer having to use their bank’s app. PIX is the smartphone-based, instant payments technology launched by the Brazilian central bank almost a year ago. The second part of Phase 3, enabling payments made with TED (transferência eletrônica disponível) and transfers between accounts of the same bank, is set to begin in mid-February of 2022; the third part, enabling payments via bank slip, is slated to begin in late June; and the fourth and final part of Phase 3, enabling payment by debit account, is set to go live at the end of September.
Payment initiation is only one component of the open banking project Brazil has undertaken. Giving consumers the ability to make price comparisons, as well as compare rates and credit offers, are also major new possibilities for consumers that will be available thanks to the introduction of open banking in the country. These elements are expected to begin at the end of March 2022.
“The initiation will have a great impact especially on fintechs, which may offer more practical solutions for consumers or improve your internal financial processes from direct payment,” Belvo General Director Albert Morales explained. “Large banks, on the other hand, should start to rethink prices and solutions offered, both to attract new users and to retain users.”
Brazil’s open banking project, approved in 2019 by the country’s central bank, is part of a larger modernization effort for the Brazil’s entire financial system. And while the global pandemic has played a major role in complicating the project’s original timeline, officials expect open banking to be fully implemented in the country by September of next year.
Read more about Brazil’s open banking project in this interview with Otávio Damaso, Regulation Director for Brazil’s central bank, conducted by The Paypers last month. Damaso explains why Brazil has embraced open banking, and how open banking fits into the larger context of regulatory changes and trends in the country.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Africa’s largest bank by assets, Standard Bank, and African payments company Flutterwave collaborate to enhance digital payments in Nigeria, Zambia, and six other African countries.
Africa-based Standard Bank announced this week it is partnering with payments technology company Flutterwave. The bank is looking to Flutterwave to help improve the digital payment experience for customers in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Mauritius, Cote D’Ivoire, and Malawi.
By integrating Flutterwave, Standard Bank aims to help commercial customers– from sole proprietors to large companies– grow their business by leveraging digital payments and ecommerce tools. Specifically, Flutterwave will help Standard Bank’s merchant clients to build e-commerce, card issuing, payments, collections, USSD, lending, and buy-now-pay-later capabilities for end consumers.
“Our partnership with Standard Bank demonstrates that fintechs and banks are not competitors but trusted partners with the key focus being the customer,” said Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga GB Agboola. “We plan to grow financial and digital inclusion through this partnership and in the long run, we expect to generate more jobs in the digital economy and enable rapid business growth across the continent.”
Flutterwave was founded in 2016 and has since processed over 140 million transactions worth over $9 billion. The company aims to create a flexible and affordable way for Africans to pay in the digital era. In addition to its payments technology, the company also offers invoicing technology, business loans, and analytics tools.
Standard Bank’s Chief Executive of Africa Regions Yinka Sanni anticipates the benefits of today’s partnership will transcend the bank’s merchant clients. “Coupled with the innovation offered by Flutterwave, we can deliver real impact and growth opportunities to clients across the continent,” he explained. “We believe when our clients grow, Africa grows.”
Earlier this year Flutterwave teamed up with PayPal to connect its African merchant clients with PayPal’s 377 million accountholders, making it easier for them to navigate the complex payments infrastructure in Africa. Flutterwave has raised $235 million and is headquartered in California.
Founded in 2010 by Anthony Thomson and Vernon Hill, Metro Bank was the first new high street bank to go live in the U.K. in more than 100 years. Currently led by CEO Daniel Frumkin, the institution offers banking services to both retail and business customers, buttressed by its acquisitions of SME Finance in 2013 and of the loan portfolio for P2P loan marketplace RateSetter in 2021.
We caught up with Sophie Gorman, Lead Product Owner with Metro Bank to learn more about how the institution leveraged its hybrid, digital, and physical model to better serve both individuals and small businesses. We also asked Ms. Gorman about the meaning and importance of agility in banking and what women can do to succeed in the male-dominated world of finance.
Tell us about yourself.
Sophie Gorman: I have worked in the financial services space for almost 10 years, spanning roles at several banking organizations in the U.K. like Silicon Valley Bank and Lloyds Banking Group. During this time, I gained valuable experience across a wide range of customer segments and channels.
For the past three years, I have been a part of the Metro Bank team. Metro Bank is the first new retail bank in the U.K. in over 100 years; we launched in 2010 and now serve more than two million customers with leading banking services. At Metro, we’re bringing together digital and physical experiences to provide a personalized approach to banking, challenging the big banks and traditional players.
I’ve worn several different hats at Metro, and I now serve as lead product owner. I am responsible for delivering new digital products and services across our mobile and online banking platforms to help small businesses manage their finances. I am excited to continue to build out Metro’s business banking division, delivering value to our customers by leveraging existing and new technologies to make their financial lives easier.
How can banks embrace agility from an organizational level?
Gorman: It’s easy to believe your institution needs to deliver every feature from day one, but such thinking is actually counterproductive to embracing an agile approach. It’s important for banks to be able to pivot and tweak their offerings based on factors like user feedback, market research, and usage trends from the get-go. Such an approach to agility ensures the organization can evolve and innovate more quickly, ultimately proving to be more helpful for developers and stronger for overall team morale.
How do you support small businesses, especially those who aren’t ready to work with accountants?
Gorman: We are committed to empowering small businesses with easy, convenient digital tools to manage their finances. Recently, we’ve been focusing on providing internal bookkeeping capabilities to help businesses that may not work with accountants. One of the services our partner Sensibill provides is digital expense management, which helps our small business customers digitally capture, store, and organize their business receipts with plans to expand the services to include invoices.
The spend data captured by Sensibill helps us know and understand our customers better, which allows our bank to surface more relevant products and services based on their unique business needs. We are committed to leveraging this data to enrich our customer segments and deliver services to help our business customers grow. Our data is starting to demonstrate insightful trends that can help inform decisions.
I’m especially excited about our team building open banking APIs to allow customers to integrate transactional data with their accounting providers. With this functionality, customers can seamlessly share transactions in real-time. And as these businesses grow and become more sophisticated, they’ll be able to easily take advantage of additional tools.
Tell us about Metro Bank’s hybrid model.
Gorman: Metro Bank is bringing together digital experiences and the physical stores to provide our customers with the best possible experience for their individual needs. We recognized that customers still craved face-to-face interactions with our store colleagues and Local Business Managers in certain instances, but still wanted the optionality and convenience for digital at their fingertips. We’re in a unique position because Metro isn’t a true neo-bank, but it’s not one of the U.K.’s Big Four either. We’ve been in the market for a little over 10 years, so we’re still relatively young and growing quickly. It’s been a fun ride so far, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.
How can women grow within organizations?
Gorman: For women looking to grow in the banking or technology space, I’d encourage them to lean into their transferable skills. Oftentimes women make the mistake of thinking they have to fit into a certain box based on their current role, making it difficult to transition into other roles or find opportunities in a new area. But by nurturing and harnessing those transferable skills, women can gain the confidence to apply their knowledge and diverse skill sets to other areas, continuing to deliver value to the organization in new ways and grow.
I’d recommend finding a mentor in the organization with influence outside of your immediate team to provide you with visibility and push for opportunities that will stretch you. This helped me transition into a more technology based role. I also loved reading Viv Groskop’s How to Own the Room: Women and the Art of Brilliant Speaking which has some fantastic practical tips for those suffering from the dreaded Imposter Syndrome.
Credit card innovator Deserve is getting a boost this week. That’s because Visa invested an undisclosed amount into the credit card company, which already counts $287 million in total funding.
The two have also formed a strategic partnership with an aim to expand access to Deserve’s credit-card-as-a-service for financial institutions, fintechs, and brands. This comes after the two parties collaborated in Visa’s Fintech Fast Track program to launch a credit card with crypto rewards in partnership with BlockFi.
“Visa’s Crypto team collaborated with BlockFi and Deserve to launch a crypto rewards credit card that would appeal to crypto enthusiasts and introduce crypto to the masses,” said Visa’s Vice President of Crypto AJ Shanley. “The BlockFi Bitcoin rewards credit card has been an immediate success. We are excited about our partnership and new investment in Deserve and are looking forward to continuing to drive the adoption of crypto powered card programs together.”
Founded in 2013, Deserve rebranded from SelfScore in 2017. The company has re-imagined traditional credit cards, thinking outside of the 3.37 inch by 2.125 inch plastic square. Deserve is bringing credit cards into the digital era by transforming the application and onboarding processes, as well as the credit card itself.
The company’s products include a co-branded credit card program to help firms create and launch their own credit card, a credit card-as-a-service offering that provides a turnkey card solution, and a direct-to-consumer digital-first card with a tandem mobile app. As Deserve Co-Founder and CEO Kalpesh Kapadia explains, “We’re transforming credit cards into software that lives on mobile devices not in wallets.”
Part of operating in today’s digital-first world includes helping firms compete with fintechs. Deserve offers commercial customers tools that go beyond traditional credit card rewards. For example, the company delivers additional capabilities to include Buy Now Pay Later, installment loans, and even payroll advance. Deserve’s clients include Sallie Mae, BlockFi, OppFi, Seneca Women, and Notre Dame.
The Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) revolution shows no signs of abating any time soon. A combination of newcomers, Buy Now Pay Later pioneers, and even credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard are figuring out new ways to integrate themselves into the biggest consumer commerce phenomenon since shopping by smartphone.
According to CNBC, which bases its analysis on data from FIS Worldpay, the Buy Now Pay Later market has an estimated value of $60 billion globally as of 2019 – though there are even higher estimates. Excluding China, this sum represents 2.6% of all e-commerce. And while BNPL represents less than 2% of sales in North America, the overall BNPL market, CNBC believes, could reach $166 billion by 2023.
Here is just a smattering of this week’s headlines from the Buy Now Pay Later beat that only underscores the velocity of the flight from credit cards and traditional consumer financing.
Stripe teams up with Klarna as BNPL competition from Square, PayPal intensifies
Klarna, a company with a long pedigree in providing consumers with alternative payment options, announced this week that it was partnering with ecommerce innovator and payments platform Stripe. The deal will enable Stripe customers in 20 countries to offer Klarna as a payment option to their customers. As part of the partnership, Klarna will use Stripe to accept payments from consumers in both the U.S. and Canada.
“Over the past years, Klarna and Stripe redefined the e-commerce experience for millions of consumers and global retailers,” Klarna Chief Technology Officer Koen Köppen said. “Together with Stripe, we will be a true growth partner for retailers of all sizes, allowing them to maximize their entrepreneurial success through our joint services. By offering convenience, flexibility, and control to even more shoppers, we create a win-win situation for both retailers and consumers alike.”
The partnership is widely seen as a way for Stripe to compete with payments rivals PayPal and Square, which have deepened their commitment to BNPL in recent months. Square agreed to acquire Australia’s Afterpay for $29 million in August. A month later, PayPalannounced its $2.7 billion acquisition of Japanese Buy Now Pay Later company Paidy.
Affirm partners with American Airlines to ease cost of holiday travel
In a move well-timed to take advantage of end-of-year travel trends, American Airlines has announced a partnership with Buy Now Pay Later innovator Affirm. The collaboration will enable eligible travelers to pay for the costs of airfare over time on an installment basis, providing them with “flexibility, transparency, and control,” according to Affirm Chief Commercial Officer Silvija Martincevic. Using Affirm, travelers can pay for flights costing at least $50 with monthly installments without having to pay late fees or worry about hidden charges.
“While consumers are as eager as ever to get away,” Martincevic said, “they remain conscious of fitting travel into their budget.” Martincevic cited a survey conducted by the company that indicated that 74% of Americans queried said they would spend more on holiday travel this year “than ever before,” but that 60% were worried that they would not be able to “afford to travel as they would like to.”
The offering is currently available only to select customers, but will be expanded to include more U.S. consumers in the weeks to come. The collaboration marks the first time that American Airlines has integrated BNPL options into its website.
Marqeta and Amount announce collaboration to help banks offer BNPL
The partnership announced this week between card issuing platform Marqeta and bank technology provider Amount will make it easier for financial institutions to get into the Buy Now Pay Later business. Marqeta and Amount have forged a virtual card and loan origination partnership that will enable banks to go to market with their own BNPL/virtual card offering in months. This will help them boost revenues, grow market share, and promote loyalty.
Echoing the challenge that banks and other financial institutions face from Big Tech and fintech alike, Amount CEO Adam Hughes pointed to the partnership with Marqeta as a way for banks to close the consumer expectations gap between themselves and more tech-savvy, tech-native enterprises entering the financial services space. “Banks must compete or continue to lose market share to digital challengers who offer a more flexible way for their customers to pay,” Hughes said.
Part of what makes the Marqeta/Amount partnership interesting is how it takes advantage of research that suggests that a significant number of consumers who have used BNPL would prefer it if the service came from their bank or credit card provider. Amount’s modular approach to BNPL is configurable, easy to deploy, and integrates readily with banks’ legacy platforms, giving FIs the ability to introduce BNPL offerings over a variety of different channels and payment methods.
Berlin-based Billie banks $100 million in funding
The latest reminder of the international growth of Buy Now Pay Later comes from the $100 million investment secured by Berlin, Germany-based, B2B Buy Now Pay Later startup, Billie. The Series C round was led by U.K.-based Dawn Capital and featured participation from Tencent and, interestingly enough, Klarna. In fact, Klarna’s investment comes in the wake of a strategic partnership with Billie in which the two companies will integrate their service to better leverage their core competencies, with Billie serving business customers and Klarna handling retail consumers.
“BNPL for B2B is still in its infancy phase,” Klarna CEO and co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski explained, “even though the demand has never been higher. We are here to solve problems and by being able to offer this service to our merchant partners together with Billie, we are doing just that.”
The Series C round gives Billie a valuation of $640 million, and is believed to be the largest B2B Buy Now Pay Later funding round to-date. Co-founder and co-CEO of Billie, Dr. Matthias Knecht noted that those companies buying from larger businesses and individual retailers are increasingly embracing a “digital-first” approach that includes not just “modern user interfaces, high limits for shopping carts, as well as real-time decisions for B2B” but options like BNPL, as well. “There is nearly no provider of a BNPL product (for these companies) like what Klarna offers for B2C,” Knecht said. “We aim to close this gap.”
Visa expands BNPL offerings in Canada via partnership with Moneris
International card company and financial services provider Visa has been making inroads of its own into the Buy Now Pay Later market. This week, the company made headlines in the Canadian fintech news space via a new collaboration with unified commerce company Moneris.
“We’re happy to be working with a trusted brand like Visa Canada on providing a buy now pay later option to Canadians,” Moneris Chief Product and Partnership Officer Patrick Diab said. “Bringing flexible payment methods like buy now pay later to our merchants helps them offer their customers more options when it comes time to pay.”
Courtesy of the new collaboration, merchants partnered with Moneris will be able to leverage Visa’s BNPL solution – Visa Installments – to give eligible Canadian credit cardholders access to installment payments on qualifying purchases. Cardholders can use the existing credit on their cards to pay for purchases in smaller, equal payments over a defined time period, with no additional, new service sign ups or requirement to apply for a new line of credit.
Moneris is set to begin offering Visa Installments to its customers by the spring of 2022.
We are still 143 days away from FinovateEurope— the show is taking place in London on March 22 through 23, 2022– but we’ve been getting ready for Finovate’s first in-person show in Europe since 2020.
Our favorite part of these preparations involves the people. Since Finovate’s first show in 2007, we’ve been building up our relationships in the industry and many of the folks we’ve met have become part of our fintech family. As the industry has grown, so has our network. And while we expect to have stellar thought leaders both on stage and in the audience, we’ve already started curating our speaker lineup for next year.
So far, we’ve secured a list featuring some of the greatest minds in fintech. Here’s a very small taste of the speakers you can expect to see at next year’s event:
Dr. Louise Beaumont, Chair, Open Finance & Payments Working Group at techUK Dr. Beaumont is an expert in innovations surrounding open banking, open finance, open data, lending, and payments. In her role chairing techUK’s Open Finance & Payments working group, she works with legislators and regulators on everything from open banking to open data. LinkedIn
Our FinovateEurope 2022 speakers are coming from a variety of companies across the banking and fintech sector. Some of the companies represented on panels and in discussion sessions include Nasdaq, Morgan Stanley, Forrester, Monzo, Lloyds Banking Group, Aite Group, HSBC, Blackrock, ING, and more.
Venture investing platform OurCrowdannounced today it landed $25 million in funding. The convertible equity investment comes from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, a subsidiary of Softbank Group that specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Since it launched in 2013, OurCrowd’s platform has helped 140,000 accredited investors from more than 195 countries invest in over 280 companies and 30 funds. OurCrowd will use today’s round to build its investor base and more quickly identify high-potential, tech-enabled private companies.
“We are excited to be working with SoftBank Investment Advisers, one of the world’s largest technology-focused investors,” said CEO Jon Medved. “As a strategic investor with a global reach and a network of market-leading technology companies, they will be a pivotal partner in helping OurCrowd realize our vision of democratizing access to venture capital.”
Today’s deal also involves a strategic partnership between OurCrowd and SoftBank Investment Advisers (SBIA). Softbank will consider investment opportunities via OurCrowd’s VC platform and the two will work together to evaluate market trends.
“Softbank has been investing ahead of major technology trends for over 40 years and we believe there is huge, embedded potential in the private markets ecosystem,” said Head of SBIA Operations in Israel Yossi Cohen. “In OurCrowd, we have an investment partner with the networks and pedigree to help promising Israeli startups to potentially emerge as international tech champions.”
2021 has been a good year of growth for OurCrowd. The Israel-based company saw new registered subscribers increase from 25,000 last year to 75,000 so far this year– a 300% boost. This uplift is fueled by OurCrowd’s ability to curate a diverse portfolio of startups that are poised for both growth and success. More than 50 companies in OurCrowd’s portfolio have made profitable exits, including Lemonade, Beyond Meat, Kenna, Argus, and Wave.
Mastercard introduced its latest innovation to help ensure that visually impaired and partially sighted consumers can use its spending and credit solutions as readily as any other cardholder. The company’s Touch Card, announced this week, enables the visually impaired to easily determine whether the Mastercard they are holding is a credit, debit, or prepaid card thanks to a few simple design elements to the physical card itself.
At a time when payment cards are becoming sleeker, eschewing the boldly embossed letters and numbers that have distinguished these cards for decades, the new Touch Card features a new design that, while not bucking the trend toward flatter, thiner cards, provides the kind of tactile cues that visually impaired consumers can use to select and use the right card. With a series of notches on the side of the card – a round notch for credit cards; a broad, square-shaped notch for debit cards; and a triangular notch for prepaid cards – Mastercard’s new Touch Card is another example of what Mastercard Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Raja Rajamannar called innovation “driven by the impulse to include.”
“The Touch Card will provide a greater sense of security, inclusivity, and independence to the 2.2 billion people around the world with visual impairments,” Rajamannar said. “For the visually impaired, identifying their payment cards is a real struggle. This tactile solution allows consumers to correctly orient the card and know which payment card they are using.”
The new cards have been endorsed by The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the U.K. and by VISIONS/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired in the U.S. Co-designed by augmented identity specialist IDEMIA, Mastercard’s Touch Card works with bot point-of-scale terminals and ATMs, meaning that the new solution can be readily deployed at scale.
“With one in seven people experiencing some form of disability,” Rajamannar said, “designing these products with accessibility in mind gives them equal opportunity to benefit from the ease and security of a digital world. No one should be left behind.”
It is worth mentioning that the Touch Card is only one of Mastercard’s initiatives to empower those with visual impairments. The company includes its signature melody, which signifies that card transactions have been completed successfully at the checkout counter, among these efforts.
