Spring 2021 starts with a new name and 15 promising Nordic and Baltic Tech Start-ups joining Mastercard Lighthouse Today, Mastercard is announcing 15 tech start-ups that will kick off 2021 by joining the Spring edition of Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV. Since the launch in 2018, Lighthouse has had the opportunity to facilitate more than 1500 partnership meetings between innovative start-ups and our partner banks. This Spring, the program has been focused on Denmark, Norway and the Baltic markets, and also – for the first time – companies located on Iceland. In 2020, Mastercard Lighthouse introduced the second program called MASSIV (Make And Scale Social Impact Vision) aimed at tech laser focused on making the world a more prosperous and secure place. In order to distinguish our efforts within the two focus areas we are renaming the Mastercard Lighthouse Program to FINITIV – the fintech initiative. FINITIV program is our continuous effort connecting the start-ups with our corporate partners, with growth as the end goal for all parties involved. Last year also prompted to transform the program to fit a digital format which was successfully adapted and appreciated by all parties involved. At least for the first half of the year, the program will continue to be digital. We are fired up for introducing the next round of candidates to the FINITIV program and welcome our partners DNB, SEB, Danske Bank and Swedbank in the program. Along side of them, companies will also meet our strategic advisor Susanne Hennestad and representatives from AWS and DLAPiper. Thus far, together with Mastercard, banking partners, investors, and legal, tech, and strategy experts, we’ve showcased more than 75 innovative start-ups and produced some notable results by partnering and working together. “We are pleased to be part of the Lighthouse program again this Spring. We are looking forward to joining as a banking partner in order to explore mutually beneficial opportunities with innovative fintechs. 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. We believe that through collaboration we can create a bright future of financial services.” During the program, companies will be able to meet in a one-on-one setting with all the program partners and eventually pitch in front of investors. Besides meetings with Mastercard and our banking partners, start-ups will receive guidance from Mastercard Marketing and Communication teams in making their story and messaging clear and enticing. “Crediwire is excited about being a part of Mastecard’s program, that has produced a number of partnerships between FinTechs and established financial players. We have developed our entire software based on collaboration with banks and financial providers. We believe very much in the strategy Mastercard is pursuing of introducing great companies and allowing them to cocreate great products” – CardLab develops biometric cards for unique user identification in payments, access, ID, blockchain & Cyber protection.(http://www.cardlab.com/) – Crediwire is a platform for financial optimization, for companies and their advisors. (https://www.crediwire.com/) – Swiipe Payments is an online One-Click buy solution to the e-commerce market supporting PSD2 account-to-account payments. (https://swiipe.com/) – Legacy is a digital platform that helps companies become Lean, Green, and Compliant with automated CO2-accounting (http://www.legacyapp.dk/) – Dintero helps merchants with our smart payment splitting platform. (https://www.dintero.com/) – Astat is a new Norwegian challenger bank for SMEs who aim to serve the underserved SMB market with better daily banking. (https://en.astat.app/) – ZData offers a platform that connects financial players and accounting systems with banks. (https://www.zdata.no/) – Snapio A one-click checkout solution for shopping from product advertisements in online and offline environments. contextual shopping solution (https://snapio.shop/en/) – Alpha Visum has developed API technology to understand clients behavior better and increase data modelling accuracy. (https://alphavisum.com/) – Maxaa is providing fully digital cash-register and soft POS solution to Micro and SME merchants. (http://www.maxaa.eu/) – Wert is developing a set of regulated service for digital asset industry to help them grow though compliance innovations. (https://wert.io/) – Indó is the first challenger bank in Iceland. 100% safety, unparalleled transparency – banking as it should be. (https://indo.is/) – YAY is a digital gift card platform. Giving the perfect gift has never been this easy. (https://www.yay.is/) – Earthbanc reports & verifies carbon risks for banks & their corporate customers by leveraging Open Banking data, satellite & IoT remote sensing services to monitor and report carbon risk. (https://earthbanc.io/) – Defentry is a personal cybersecurity eco-system safeguards personal data with cutting edge technology. (https://www.defentry.com/) Mastercard Lighthouse is an open innovation platform designed to strengthen the entire financial services ecosystem. FINITIV is a free program designed to catalyze symbiotic partnerships between fintechs, Mastercard, and Tier 1 Nordic partners. Pairing the energy and innovation of fintechs with the stability and distribution at large financial service firms, FINITIV produces partnerships that strengthen the entire ecosystem. Each five-month the program hosts workshops for 15+ fintechs, and brings banks, investors, advisors and fintechs together to explore partnerships via open innovation.
Mats Taraldsson
Head of Digital Development and Fintech Engagement, Mastercard Nordics and Baltics
Kathy Hao-Hsuan Chang
Head of Fintech Partnerships at DNB
Nicholas Meilstrup
CEO Crediwire
Meet the Lighthouse Spring Class of 2021:
Denmark
Norway
Latvia
Estonia
Iceland
Sweden
About Lighthouse FINITIV:
“During the past 3 years, Lighthouse Program has showed us how innovative the region is. There is no slowing down and the fintech sectors is reaching all time highs with more capital being brought in and thus attracting even more entrepreneurs to build fintech products. Payments have been leading this innovation and thus proves to us the importance of being a part of the community and strengthening of the ecosystem through open innovation platforms such as Lighthouse. It was a tough decision to select 15 companies among all the applicants, but we are excited to start working together with some of the most promising fintechs of the region this spring”