This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
TabaPay will use Synapse’s assets to bolster its selection of financial services for fintech firms and financial institutions. Both TabaPay and Synapse offer payouts and payments processing technologies. Synapse, however, also provides neobanking, gig economy, lending, credit, wealth management, and embedded finance tools.
“The addition of the Synapse features is an acceleration of our TabaPay story, one dedicated to delivering great solutions that help our clients rapidly innovate, save money, and offer great financial products to their customers,” said TabaPay Co-founder and CEO Rodney Robinson. “The Synapse assets are a great and natural fit to our existing services to grow our offerings in tandem with providing continuity to Synapse clients and banks.”
TabaPay was founded in 2017 to help clients disburse and collect one million transactions daily– and in real time– on behalf of more than 2,500 clients in the U.S. and Canada. The company’s API offers direct access to 15 banking partners, 16 network connections, and full-stack payment processing. Last March, we spoke to the company’s VP of Strategic Partnerships Maggie O’Toole on her role in the industry.
Both TabaPay and Synapse were listed on Deloitte’s 2023 Fast 500. Synapse has seen a 650%+ growth over the past five years. That growth is now come to a halt, however, since Synapse has today revealed it filed a voluntary bankruptcy petition under Chapter 11. The bankruptcy comes after Synapse’s partner bank Lineage received a consent order from the FDIC earlier this year. The California-based company also signaled trouble when it laid off 40% of its staff last October after losing its client, Mercury, to its partner, Evolve Bank & Trust. Synapse was founded in 2014 and had raised $50.7 million.
TabaPay’s acquisition is pending approval by the bankruptcy court.
As we celebrate Earth Day, we’re taking a look at the state of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals in banking and fintech. Recent actions by the House Financial Services Committee suggest that the industry may be losing sight of these ESG objectives.
For years, the financial services industry has been making progress in its efforts to improve ESG policies by incentivizing clients to choose more sustainable investment options, creating safeguards and efficiencies to create a more sustainable industry, engaging in social stewardship, and more. And while many of those efforts are still happening, some of the progress in ESG has slowed.
The House Financial Services Committee, which has recently taken action on banking regulations and environmental policy, voted along party lines to pass Congressional Review Act resolutions that would void measures aimed at promoting ESG goals. The move would invalidate measures that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other banking regulators initiated to improve regulation around the industry’s ESG efforts.
One of the key resolutions the Committee has its eye on is a CFPB rule capping credit card late fees at $8. While much of the banking industry is in favor of the resolution, saying that it would protect consumers who pay on time, critics argued that it would disproportionately impact low-income and underbanked families.
The House Financial Services Committee also has its eye on climate change in financial regulation. These resolutions are designed to ensure that banks are transparent about their environmental impact and are managing climate-related risks. The lack of current regulation in ESG has resulted in “green-washing” efforts in which financial services companies promote inflated or irrelevant metrics that provide end consumers the appearance that their company, product, or service is more environmentally friendly than it actually is.
These resolutions represent a significant effort by Republicans in Congress to nullify the Biden administration’s financial policies, including those related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. While they are questioned, However, the resolutions are unlikely to become law due to a lack of Republican votes to overturn a presidential veto.
Happy Earth Day! Partnerships in payments and fundraising in the international investment/wealth management space are dominating fintech news headlines as the week begins.
Digital banking
Caribbean Bank Limited partners with Finastra to modernize its core technology and upgrade its back office operations.
Open banking
Bill-sharing app Splitwise teams up with open banking platform Tink to bring Pay by Bank to Splitwise customers.
Banking-as-a-Service
BaaS innovator Finzlypartners with EverBank to enhance the firm’s payment processing system.
Payments
Business payments specialist Bottomlineforges strategic partnership with spend management company Coupa.
U.K.-based core banking platform 10x Banking announced a strategic alliance agreement with Deloitte.
As part of the agreement, 10x will build a series of Centres of Excellence in the U.S., U.K., and India to facilitate collaboration between the two firms.
10x Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023.
SaaS core banking platform 10x Banking has inked a strategic alliance agreement with Deloitte. Effective in both the U.S. and the U.K., the agreement will power greater cooperation when it comes to helping financial institutions around the world access transformative technologies.
As part of the strategic alliance, the two firms will launch a series of 10x Centres of Excellence in the U.S., the U.K., and India. The centers will facilitate collaboration between 10x Banking and Deloitte, and should be fully-staffed with their initial 100-member teams by the end of the year.
Courtesy of the alliance, the 10x platform will also be fully integrated into BankingSuite from Converge by Deloitte. BankingSuite is a modern composable platform that enables banks to build new digital capabilities at pace. Introduced in 2022, Converge combines Deloitte’s software, industry expertise, and partner ecosystem to help Deloitte’s clients maximize the opportunities of digital transformation and emergent technologies. This collaboration, between 10x and Converge, will focus initially on serving credit unions, building societies, and mutual banks to help them fulfill their digital transformation goals faster and with less cost.
“By working with Deloitte, we will enable banks and mutuals across the U.S., U.K., and beyond to modernise their legacy tech and deliver financial products and services fit for the 21st century,” 10x Banking Founder, Chair, and CEO Antony Jenkins said. “With Deloitte’s global experience and our leading technological solutions, we have a strategy in place to enact widespread change in the pursuit of making banking ten times better.”
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, U.K., 10x Banking made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. The company won Best of Show for its demo of its 10x Bank Manager, which offers a no-code interface to enable product teams to “build products, offerings, brands, and even enter new markets at speed,” as Product Marketing Manager Nicole Sanders explained at the conference. “Code less. Innovate more.”
10x Banking began 2024 partnering with mortgage origination platform Mast. The partnership will enable real-time connectivity between the two platforms, giving lenders streamlined data exchange and real-time mortgage servicing. Mast CEO Joy Abisaab said that working with 10x would “empower U.K. lenders to unlock new levels of operational efficiency and enable the delivery of exceptional customer experiences.”
10x Banking has raised $297 million in funding. The company includes JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock among its investors.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global reviews the latest fintech developments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
This region features a diverse range of countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia. More than 250 million people live in the CEE, which has a combined GDP of $2.6 trillion.
Romania’s Salt goes live with Starling’s SaaS platform
Romania’s Salt Banklaunched this month, giving the country its first 100% digital bank. Salt Bank reported that more than 80,000 people signed up in less than three weeks to be a part of the new financial institution.
“By launching Salt, we are not only bringing the first 100% Romanian neobank to the Romanian market, but we are also offering a unique perspective that combines technology and finance,” Salt Bank CEO Gabriela Nistor said.
Salt Bank currently offers 3% yearly interest on current accounts as well as on Spaces, Salt Bank’s savings account offering, as long as customers make payments of 1,000 lei/month or more (equivalent to $215). Customers also get a multi-currency card that enables transactions in 17 currencies around the world. Users of the Salt banking app can take advantage of money management tools, in-app card controls, as well as Apple and Google Pay in-app provisioning.
Headquartered in Bucharest, Salt Bank is owned by the Banca Transilvania Financial Group. The institution also offers its customers the opportunity to become founders of Salt Bank and, ultimately, shareholders in the event that the institution goes public. Salt Bank notes that its Salt Founders Community currently has 2,200 members.
Powering the launch is Starling’s SaaS platform Engine, which helped the digital bank onboard 100,000 customers in the first two weeks of operation. And although AMP Bank in Australia has also announced that it will deploy Engine, the institution is not scheduled to do so until 2025, making Salt Bank the first bank to go live with the technology.
“Our work with Salt Bank shows just what our platform is capable of,” Engine by Starling CEO Sam Everington said, “Starling’s feature rich and highly personalizable banking products can be deployed around the world to attract impressive customer volumes, while our operational experience and cloud-expertise can help build, launch, and run a bank in less than 12 months.”
Latvian fintech inGain raises EUR 650,000
inGain, a no-code SaaS loan management system based in Latvia, has raised $692,000 (EUR 650,000) in funding. Participating in the investment were VC funds Trind VC and Fiedler Capital. The Latvian Business Angels network and other business angels were also involved in the round.
The funding announcement marked the first publicly announced investment in a Latvian startup in 2024. The company will use the capital to complete work on its SaaS-based loan management system that helps facilitate lending for products that banks traditionally have been reluctant to finance. inGain Co-founder and CEO Armands Liseks explained how inGain works, using the example of a family trying to decide whether or not to commit to their child’s efforts to become the next Mozart.
“Some parents are ready to buy a piano, but what happens if they spend several months trying to persuade their kids to play the piano, but their kids still refuse to play it?” Liseks asked. “It is with this kind of situation in mind that the seller would like to offer piano leasing. For parents, this means that the payment for the musical instrument will be higher. However, this also gives them two options: either the piano is eventually purchased in full or can be returned to the seller at any time.”
Liseks added that inGain’s solution even benefits those who know they are ready to buy. “How can the bank offer leasing for the piano?” he said. “Most likely it will advise the customer to use a credit card or take out a consumer loan with 20% interest, which makes no sense whatsoever.”
inGain is headquartered in Riga. The company was founded in 2011.
Bulgaria’s Paynetics acquires UK neobank Novus
Here is some CEE-based acquisition news in the payments space that slipped beneath our radar this spring. Bulgaria’s Paynetics has acquired Novus, a neobank based in the U.K., for an undisclosed sum.
A B-corp certified digital bank – and self-described “impact neobank” – Novus enables customers to monitor their carbon footprint and get cashback when they make sustainable purchases via the app. Additionally, Novus automatically directs a portion of revenue from every transaction to an NGO of the customer’s choice.
For Paynetics, the acquisition will enable the company to offer carbon- and climate-conscious solutions to customers as well as expand “the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ecosystem across Europe.” Paynetics will also leverage the acquisition to help its clients achieve their social and environmental goals via its own embedded finance solution.
“This deal not only reinforces our dedication to ESG but also marks a significant leap forward in revolutionizing the financial sector with our cutting-edge embedded finance suite,” Paynetics noted in a post on LinkedIn.
Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria, Paynetics acquisition news comes a year after the firm was granted an electronic money institution (EMI) license from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Last month, the company announced that it had promoted Hana Rolles from Chief Revenue Officer to U.K. Chief Executive Officer.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Latin America and the Caribbean
U.S.-based recurring payments platform Toku raised $93 million in funding to power its expansion in Mexico, Brazil, and Chile.
Core banking software provider Tuumannounced its expansion to the Middle East and the establishment of a regional headquarters at ADGM.
Israel’s central bank reported that it will launch a sandbox to enable private sector entities to experiment with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
UAE-based digital fintech infrastructure firm Fils teamed up with digital banking solutions company Aion to advanced ESG in the MENA region.
Central and Southern Asia
Amazon Pay introduced credit services to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform in partnership with the National Payments Corporation of India.
Bankjoy, a digital banking provider for banks and credit unions, announced a partnership with Pinwheel this week.
Bankjoy will help its more than 70 bank and credit union customers integrate Pinwheel’s digital deposit switching (DDS) solution, Pinwheel Prime.
Pinwheel Prime has been credited with increasing direct deposit enrollment by 32%.
Digital banking provider Bankjoy has partnered with Pinwheel to help financial institutions remove friction from the account activation process.
Via the partnership, Bankjoy will enable its 70+ bank and credit union customers to integrate Pinwheel’s digital deposit switching (DDS) solution, Pinwheel Prime. Pinwheel Prime offers a two-click deposit switch that enables customers to set up their direct deposit in seconds rather than dealing with a multi-step process that requires customers to exit the banking experience.
“By seamlessly integrating from Bankjoy online account opening through various tightly-knit third-party integrations like Pinwheel, we can equip our clients to excel in the competitive deposit market,” Bankjoy COO Weiwei Duncan said. “Our goal is clear: to ensure that our clients not only compete but win the deposit war, leveraging technology to streamline processes and enhance user engagement.”
According to research from Pinwheel, solutions that make deposit switching faster and easier can significantly impact deposit growth. Pinwheel’s own deposit switching technology can enable FIs to boost direct deposit enrollment by 32%, and reduce the amount of time before a customer makes their first direct deposit by 65%.
“With this collaboration, we can bring the ability to easily switch direct deposit settings to an even wider set of consumers, facilitating a fairer financial systems with greater choice and portability,” Pinwheel Co-founder and CEO Kurtis Lin said.
Headquartered in New York and founded in 2018, Pinwheel began the year teaming up with Finovate alum Jack Henry to imbed its direct deposit switching (DDS) solution into Jack Henry’s Banno Digital Toolkit. Pinwheel has raised $77 million in funding according to Crunchbase, and includes Indeed and Franklin Templeton among its investors.
A Finovate alum since 2016 , Bankjoy most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall last year. At the conference, the company, in partnership with Panacea Financial, showing how the fintech helped the digital neobank provide financial services to medical professionals.
So far this year, Bankjoy has added two new financial institutions to its customer base: Oregon State Credit Union, which teamed up with Bankjoy in February, and Emporia State Federal Credit Union, which partnered with Bankjoy in March. Oregon State CU ($2+ billion in assets; 142,000+ members) will deploy Bankjoy’s online account opening solution as part of its strategy to fuel new member acquisition and grow deposits. Emporia State FCU, headquartered in Emporia, Kansas, launched its online and mobile banking app in March courtesy of its partnership with Bankjoy. Emporia State FCU has more than $130 million in assets and 7,800+ members.
Founded in 2015 , Bankjoy is headquartered in Royal Oak, Michigan.
From data collection to document generation and e-signatures, Anvil – Document SDK provides a comprehensive solution that prepares organizations for the data-first, AI-driven world.
Who’s it for?
Fintechs, insurtechs, and banks.
BaaSFlow
BaasFlow delivers open-source, cloud native core banking infrastructure and is introducing its Kenu Banking Platform with loan management and BNPL functionality.
Features
Utilizes a robust cloud-based Loan Management System
Delivers reliable, scalable, and proven BNPL capability
Offers a comprehensive front-to-back solution covering all lending and BNPL transactions
Provides post-purchase financing
Who’s it for?
Credit unions, community banks, credit union service organizations, neobanks, embedded finance companies, and payment service providers with a need for embedded lending.
FinTech Insights
FinTech Insights is an AI-powered competitive analysis platform for banks and fintechs. By analyzing digital banking offerings, FinTech Insights enables faster UX research, product releases, and innovation.
Features
FinTech Insights GPT allows users to:
Receive actual and actionable insights in seconds
Streamline product research processes from months to minutes
Make faster, bulletproof decisions with accuracy
Who’s it for?
High-street banks, credit unions, community banks, regional banks, challenger banks, fintechs, and digital banking providers.
LiquidTrust
LiquidTrust gives financial institutions a platform to offer their business customers a safer, new global payment method via micro-escrows. Payments can be made to 175+ countries around the world.
Features
Attracts new SMBs and makes existing ones stickier
Increases non-interest revenue and deposits
Offers easy and quick implementation with hosted, white-label option and all-around support
Mitigates fraud and loss risk
Who’s it for?
Banks, credit unions, payment providers, and SMBs.
SAVVI AI
SAVVI AI lets teams deploy AI-enabled prediction and recommendation models in hours, no specialists needed. Start with a spreadsheet.
Features
Receive AI forecasting and recommendations inside existing Excel spreadsheets
Use without core integration
Saves time, increases accuracy, and lower risk
Who’s it for?
Banks, credit unions, lenders, and payment providers.
AI integration platform AI Squared raised $13.8 million in Series A funding this week.
Participating in the round were ANSA Capital (Allan Jean-Baptiste), NEA (Greg Papadopoulos), and Roger W. Ferguson Jr., former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve System and CEO of TIAA.
AI Squared made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023 in San Francisco, California.
AI integration platform provider AI Squared has raised $13.8 million in Series A funding. The Washington, D.C.-based startup, which made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring last year, said that the investment will help the company fulfill its goal of “fostering widespread AI adoption by embedding AI-generated data insights directly into mission-critical applications and everyday workflows,” wrote AI Squared Founder and CEO Benjamin Harvey in a blog post this week.
“As we embark on the next phase of our post-Series A journey,” Harvey added, “AI Squared remains committed to advancing seamless AI integration and real-time feedback capabilities through the development of reverse ETL and lean AI functionalities.”
Participating in the Series A were ANSA Capital (Allan Jean-Baptiste), NEA (Greg Papadopoulos), and Roger W. Ferguson Jr., former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve System and CEO of TIAA. The investment takes the company’s total equity capital to $19.8 million, according to Crunchbase.
Founded in 2019, AI Squared helps companies integrate AI functionality into their applications. The company’s integration platform enables the integration of AI and machine learning technology into any web-based application, shortening integration times from eight months to eight hours. AI Squared enables companies to build seamless connections between data sources and applications; give their business teams easily consumable, relevant, actionable insights; and create feedback loops between consumers and developers that enhance data quality.
In his statement on the company’s recent funding, Harvey underscored that third point about AI Square’s technology, emphasizing it as a “core differentiation” from other providers. “By incorporating real-time feedback mechanisms, like survey questions, directly within business application workflows, we create a feedback loop between line of business employees and data science teams,” Harvey explained. “This allows for prompt improvements to the performance and accuracy of AI models and how insights are delivered to the business.” The result, Harvey said, was a gain in “confidence in AI’s effectiveness within business operations and workflows.”
Learn more about the company and its founder. Read our interview with AI Squared’s Benjamin Harvey from August of last year.
Interested in demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in May? We are happy to read applications from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today to learn more.
Business banking fintech Mercury is expanding into personal banking.
The new accounts, dubbed Mercury Personal, will offer advanced banking tools such as free wire transfers, multiple debit cards with account-level controls, and will pay 5% APY on savings accounts at launch.
Mercury Personal will allow users to easily switch between their business and personal accounts and will cost users $240 per year.
The planet Mercury may be in retrograde, but that didn’t stop business banking fintech Mercury from launching its new retail banking service this week. The new offering, Mercury Personal, creates a personal banking experience for entrepreneurs, investors, and builders who want a self-serve banking option to help optimize their personal finances.
Choice Financial Group is serving as the sponsor bank for Mercury Personal. The new personal accounts will offer individuals advanced digital banking tools, including the ability to create rules around auto-transfers, multiple debit cards, customizable permissions for additional account users, access to $5 million in FDIC insurance, and 5% APY interest on savings accounts at launch.
Launching into the consumer digital banking space may place Mercury in the same category as other popular digital banks like Chime. However, Mercury is seeking to differentiate itself from the majority of digital banks, many of which target underserved consumers. Instead, Mercury has made it clear that it is targeting entrepreneurs, founders, and investors with its advanced banking tools and capabilities.
“As we celebrate the fifth anniversary of Mercury’s launch, introducing Mercury Personal marks not just our expansion into consumer banking, but a step forward in growing our relationships with the founders and tech leaders we serve,” said Mercury Co-founder and CEO Immad Akhund. “By offering personal banking for founders and investors, we’re able to deepen our relationship with them. Mercury Personal is a strategic move toward helping people and businesses operate at their best. This is our next step in building a generational company that innovates, supports, and grows alongside the most ambitious companies and individuals.”
Other factors differentiating Mercury’s new personal bank account offering are fee-free domestic wires and ACH transfers, worldwide ATM reimbursements, and the ability to easily switch between business and personal bank accounts.
The cost is also a differentiating factor. While Chime boasts fee-free banking and a multi-card service like Greenlight charges $60 to $180 per year, Mercury Personal will charge $240 per year at launch. Depending on how a customer uses the account, however, the $240 could be worth the free wire transfers and 5% APY (though the bank makes it clear that the rate can change at any time).
There is currently a waitlist for Mercury’s personal banking accounts. The fintech expects general availability to open up later this year.
Mercury was founded in 2017 and has since been entirely focused on serving small businesses and investors. The fintech is currently under regulatory scrutiny from the FDIC for allowing users in Russia, Pakistan, and Myanmar to open accounts and for facilitating fund transfers between Saudi Arabian businesses.
Our series on conversations with fintech experts from FinovateEurope continues this week. Today we feature three interviews I conducted with fintech professionals innovating in some of the more interesting areas of our field:
a discussion with everyoneINVESTED’s Jurgen Vandenbroucke on the challenge of embedding emotion into financial technology
a conversation with BBVA’s Jose Luis Navarro on open banking and the future of financial services
an interview with Katharina Lüth, Chief Client Officer and Managing Director at Raisin, on the importance of personalization in the customer experience.
Wealthtech: bringing investment solutions to banks and customers
Jurgen Vandenbroucke, Managing Director at everyoneINVESTED, talks about the unique challenges of innovating in the wealth management and investment space. He shares his thoughts on what digital engagement really means when it comes to serving investors, and discusses what changes he sees in the regulatory landscape for investors in the U.K. and Europe.
Open banking and the future of financial services
Head of Open Banking Strategy at BBVA, Jose Luis Navarro, discusses the different approaches to open banking in Europe, North America, South America, and beyond. He covers the role of regulation, the importance of understanding third party risk, and the way customer demand is shaping the perception of open banking.
Personalization and customer engagement in an international financial services company
Chief Client Officer and Managing Director at Raisin Katharina Lüth talks about the importance of personalization and customer engagement in an international financial services company. Lüth discusses how Raisin develops personalization strategies across multiple geographies, how to manage friction in the customer experience, as well as current economic trends in the U.K., Europe, and the U.S.
Codat launched a Supplier Enablement data product with an aim to help businesses replace paper checks.
The Supplier Enablement tool recruits suppliers to accept virtual card payments instead of checks by allowing card issuers to access the right ERP data.
The Supplier Enablement tool is currently in production with select J.P. Morgan commercial clients.
Paper checks were invented in 1762, and yet we can’t seem to completely eradicate the antiquated payment technology. Business data API startup Codat is seeking to change that, however. Today, the U.K.-based company announced the launch of its new Supplier Enablement data product.
The new product allows businesses to share their spend and supplier data from ERP systems and accounting software. To reduce the need for checks, the Supplier Enablement tool recruits suppliers to accept virtual card payments instead of checks by allowing card issuers to access the right ERP data.
Piloting the launch is J.P. Morgan, which is using the new offering to allow its commercial clients to efficiently manage supplier payments using virtual cards. By connecting to the current supplier and spending data, clients can easily set up and expand their payment programs. The new Supplier Enablement tool replaces outdated payment files with secure API connections, which facilitates better data analysis and drives higher spending per client.
“With the rapidly-growing adoption of virtual cards for B2B payments, we felt the time was right to release a new data product specifically designed to transform supplier enablement and accelerate how the value of payments innovation is realized in the market,” said Codat CEO Peter Lord. “Codat’s ongoing collaboration with J.P. Morgan has been hugely valuable in helping us develop products that maximize the value of data sharing for financial institutions and their business clients.”
Codat was founded in 2017. In addition to Supplier Enablement, the company offers a Bank Feeds API that allows clients to push transaction data straight to their accounting software; Sync for Commerce, which provides merchant accounting integrations for POS and eCommerce platforms; Sync for Payables, a tool that allows customers to build accounting integrations for AP automation; Sync for Expenses, which allows clients to build accounting integrations for corporate card providers; and a Lending API.
Small business banking platform Rapid Finance is launching a Rapid Access Mastercard, a prepaid card through which small businesses can access their line of credit.
Rapid Finance’s card program is the first program sponsored by SoFi Bank.
Rapid Access Mastercard will be managed by Galileo, which SoFi acquired in 2020 in a deal valued at $1.2 billion
SoFi and its subsidiary Galileo are teaming up this week with small business banking platform Rapid Finance to launch the Rapid Access Mastercard. The new offering is a prepaid commercial card that allows Rapid Finance’s small business customers with a line of credit in good standing to access their funds.
The card will give companies using Rapid Finance’s line of credit a simple way to access the working capital they need, even outside of traditional banking hours. The company’s line of credit offers access to financing from $5,001 up to $250,000 with terms ranging from three to eighteen months.
“This card program underscores Rapid Finance’s commitment to empowering businesses with flexible and accessible financial solutions,” said Will Tumulty, CEO of Rapid Finance. “With the Rapid Access Mastercard, small business owners can better seize market opportunities, manage their cash flow and support their business growth in a way that is more convenient for them.”
This announcement is perhaps more notable for SoFi than it is for Rapid Finance. That’s because Rapid Finance’s card program is the first program sponsored by SoFi Bank. SoFi earned its banking license in 2022, but has since abstained from a pure-play BaaS agreement. The bank partnered with Pagaya in 2021 to offer lending-as-a-service, but the loans are underwritten by Pagaya, which means SoFi isn’t taking any credit risks.
While SoFi will serve as the sponsor bank for Rapid Finance, the prepaid card aspect will be managed by Galileo, which SoFi acquired in 2020 in a deal valued at $1.2 billion. Galileo was founded in 2001 and currently offers digital banking tools, card and lending products, cloud infrastructure, and more.
“This collaboration underscores Galileo’s commitment to helping small businesses do more with their money, faster,” said Galileo CEO Derek White. “We look forward to working together alongside SoFi Bank to help Rapid Finance quickly develop and scale this flexible payment program to support SMBs’ ability to gain swift, easy access to the funds they need to be successful.”
