Mastercard is announcing 15 tech startups that will join the fall 2020 Lighthouse Program. Each of the companies has been selected due to its innovative, scalable, and most importantly, impactful solutions that they bring to the table. Together with Mastercard, banking partners, investors, and legal, tech, and strategy experts, Lighthouse hopes to co-create and build truly collaborative results that will enrich the financial industry. “In every edition of the Lighthouse Program, we can see that the Nordics & Baltics are genuinely leading in payments innovation. This proves the importance of strengthening the ecosystem through open innovation platforms such as Lighthouse. It is always tough to select 15 companies among all the applicants, but we are excited to start working together with a new class of highly promising fintechs of the region this fall.” This fall edition also marks the program’s partner’s expansion in the Nordics & Baltics. Lighthouse is engaging multiple partners such as SEB, OP Bank and Swedbank, to name a few who will be meeting all 15 companies throughout September until November to explore partnership opportunities. – We are extremely pleased to be part of the Lighthouse program year after year as one of the main partner banks in order to explore mutually beneficial opportunities with innovative fintechs. We have already found multiple companies we collaborated with in the past through this program and we are not stopping there! Our team is looking forward to meeting new exciting fintechs for the main purpose of exploring synergies and bringing even more value to our existing and future clients across segments. Lighthouse development program is part of our partnership strategy and we are delighted to be part of this ever-growing community. We believe that by cooperation we can create a bright future of financial services for the whole society, says Audrius Rutkauskas, Head of Innovation center at SEB Lithuania. During the program, companies will be able to meet in a one on one setting with all the program partners. “We are excited to broaden the horizons of our cooperation with the Lighthouse Program and offer even more promising fintechs the opportunity to connect with Swedbank and together develop the next generation of financial services. We have a proven track record of fintech partnerships and investments and are always looking to expand our digital customer offering” – Lotta Lovén, CIO and Head of Digital Banking & IT, Swedbank We are looking forward to collaborating with Nordic and Baltic banks during the program, says Tadas Tamosiunas, CEO at Kevin. Besides meetings with Mastercard and our banking partners, startups will receive guidance from Mastercard Marketing and Communication teams in making their story and messaging clear and enticing. Besides that, the Lighthouse program works together with a number of experts that offer their help in strategic company development. We greatly appreciate the opportunity given by Mastercard Lighthouse program by having us on board the 2020 fall edition. All 3 Co-founders and our partner Tourn feel the program’s partners, resources and network will help us find new partnerships, scale up faster and prepare for the great future ahead.” Fidan Gutaj, Co-Founder at Charge.gg In the final stages of the program, companies will also have the opportunity to pitch in front of investors. Even though the program will be conducted in a digital format the team has made sure there are plenty of touchpoints when it comes to business development. ”We are eager to be back for another Lighthouse program. We are always looking for new ways to offer new and better services for our customers. Connecting with all the bright minds to explore novel ways to partner and deliver value to our customers is very exciting.” Anton Danielsen, Startup & M&A Lead at OP Bank “At Gimi, we are thrilled to be part of the Mastercard Lighthouse Programme and to elaborate on the opportunities to partner with the most promising and modern banks of tomorrow, so that we together can create and distribute child-friendly financial services that will not only include children in the modern society, but also increase the financial literacy among our future generations” says, Philip Haglund Founder & CEO at Gimi The Lighthouse program will commence on September 7th and will welcome the following 15 companies: – Gimi is a neo-bank providing educational fintech products for young people and their supporters. www.gimitheapp.com – Charge helps e-sport gamers send invoices, receive donations and automatically prepare taxes without setting up a company. www.charge.gg – Youcal is an EU-licensed payment facilitator building and providing a payments platform targeting the service industry, marketplaces, and IoT-applications. www.youcal.com – Ponture is a digital one-stop-shop for SME credit with an inclusive financing angle. www.ponture.com – FossID is an open-source code scanner that uncovers license obligations, compliance issues, and security vulnerabilities in the codebase. www.fossid.com – Voima Gold is a safe account provider 100% backed by physical gold, integrating accounts to swift payments network and building banking technology around them. www.voimagold.com – ReceiptHero delivers digital receipts from merchants to banking apps. www.getreceipthero.com – XMLdation provides help with integration testing for transaction banking services. www.xmldation.com – Arctic Security is a cybersecurity provider reducing the time to detect compromised machines. www.arcticsecurity.com – InvestSuit offers a white-label roboadvisor, portfolio optimization framework, a self-execution trading app and a story-based investment performance reporting. www.investsuite.com – Kevin is building payment infrastructure for the online and physical world based on open banking regulated by European PSD2. www.getkevin.eu – ConnectPay is a banking service provider for internet-based companies. www.connectpay.com – Regvolution provides automated capital optimization using benchmark data, machine learning and optimization algorithms. www.regvolution.com – Spell builds next gen IT platform for acquiring banks and PI’s to help them always stay competitive by continuously updating their economy and product offers. www.ourspell.com – Savings Panda by Rethinkers is a gamified savings tool for improved personal finances creating a real savings “addiction”. 15 Promising Nordic and Baltic Tech Startups to join Mastercard Lighthouse Program’s Fall Edition of 2020
Mats Taraldsson
Head of Digital Development and Fintech Engagement, Mastercard Nordics and Baltics
Meet the Lighthouse fall Class of 2020
Sweden
Finland
Lithuania