Vibrant.io, a fast-growing provider of mobile checkout solutions, wins the spring edition of Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV, Mastercard’s open innovation programme.
It is the second time since 2019, when Zliide was the winner, that an Aarhus-based fintech company has won FINITIV.
According to the rationale, Vibrant.io was selected as the FINITIV winner because of its global ambitions, clear customer value, ability to execute, and overall willingness to scale up.
The FINITIV programme runs for three months and gives Nordic and Baltic fintech startups the opportunity to work with Mastercard and major Nordic banks such as SEB, Danske Bank, DNB, Swedbank and OP Financial Group. Each year, the programme partners select a winner from hundreds of applicants based on criteria such as the founder’s ambition, product potential and progress during the programme.
Vibrant’s payment app, aimed at small shops, uses tap-on-phone technology to turn an Android phone into a contactless payment terminal. Since launching in the first quarter of 2022, Vibrant has achieved full security clearance from Mastercard and VISA. The company is certified and PCI-compliant and has won several industry awards, including Best in Class (Paris Fintech Forum) and Best Startup (Copenhagen Fintech). EY has also nominated Kasper Enggaard Krog, CEO of Vibrant, as one of the Entrepreneurs of the Year.
“We are extremely grateful to have won the Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV programme among so many great fintech companies. Vibrant is growing fast, and Mastercard’s global network and deep insights have been a real gamechanger for us and it gives us the energy to grow even faster across Europe,” says Kasper Enggaard Krog, CEO and co-founder of Vibrant.
“Small business owners and their customers need easier and more accessible ways to pay and receive payments. Fortunately, options are increasingly available, thanks to companies like Vibrant, which offers tap-on-phone payment terminals for small and medium-sized businesses. We are impressed by the team’s ambition and efficient work and we look forward to a fruitful collaboration,” says Mats Taraldsson, Head of Innovation, Fintech and Impact-tech Engagement, Mastercard Nordics and Baltics.
Today, Vibrant focuses on delivering a payment solution, but the company’s vision is to become a platform that solves multiple needs among merchants.
“At Danske Bank, we are positive about open data and believe that collaboration with fintech companies will help define the future of financial products and services. Our partnerships span many different areas – from open banking to social impact, from fintech start-ups to large
companies. We believe in working with partners to offer better products and services to our customers. We are excited to be part of the Lighthouse programme year after year, exploring opportunities with many fintechs from the Nordics and Baltics,” says Morten Schwaner, Product Owner Card Products Danske Bank.
In addition to Vibrant, several start-ups stood out in this spring’s FINITIVE programme. Vayapay, a contactless payment solution for public transport won in the programme’s Norwegian class for its clear collaboration potential with Mastercard. Tipit, a contactless payment solution founded by Tautvydas Grinius, former product manager at Vinted, was named FINITIV’s best startup from Lithuania. Norway’s Lendwill, a peer-to-peer lending platform, won the Mastercard Lighthouse Circle investor award after achieving the most investor interest.
“Among all the awards, the most important for us was to get recognition from Mastercard’s investor community. We are about to complete our first major investor round and this award gives us tremendous inspiration and momentum going forward,” said Anzhelika Osmanova, CEO of Lendwill.
In addition to Zliide, the FINITIV programme has in previous years featured winners such as Enfuce, a Finland-based company providing cloud-based financial services; Doconomy, a sustainable banking service from Sweden; Aprila Bank, a lending platform for small businesses from Norway; and Tallinn-based Single.Earth, which offers a unique payment method to landowners to reduce global emissions.
The winner of the Lighthouse FINITIV programme will receive an invitation to pitch their business idea to Mastercard’s Start Path programme. The next edition of Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV will start at the end of August 2022 and will focus on Sweden, Finland and the Latvian markets. Read more about fintech trends and solutions from Lighthouse FINITIV companies in the recently published Mastercard Lighthouse Research Report.
Companies participating in the Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV Spring 2022 that are not mentioned above are:
Sweden:
Vourity, a SaaS platform for unattended payments and access.
Denmark:
GROO, an innovative loyalty platform that enables consumers to pay their bills/subscriptions with cashback.
FellowPay is developing a solution to increase the credit limit of customers’ Mastercard.
Sepior provides key management and wallet solutions for the management and security of digital assets using MPC.
Paiblock a platform that provides a secure place to collect and connect all the elements of digital life.
Norway:
Stack by.me is the new investment app that helps young people get started through knowledge and networking.
Zeipt is an open API SaaS platform for sending smart receipts from the checkout directly to consumer apps in real time.
Lithuania:
Kernolab helps businesses create customised banking and payment experiences in their products, without the barriers associated with traditional banking.
Verified Payments is a BaaS platform that enables B2B customers to launch their own payment and related finance products efficiently.
SME Finance develops digital financing solutions to address the problem of funding shortages for SMEs in Europe.
Pixevia is developing an AI-driven retail platform similar to Amazon Go.
