For the second time since 2019, an Aarhus-based fintech has won the Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV program. Vibrant, the fast-growing mobile point of sale provider, joins Zliide as the second startup from the Danish city to win FINITIV, Mastercard’s Nordic & Baltic open innovation program.

Lighthouse FINITIV is a three-month startup program that helps Nordic and Baltic fintechs explore partnership opportunities with Mastercard and major Nordic banks like SEB, Danske Bank, DNB, Swedbank, and OP Financial Group. Each year, program partners choose a winner from hundreds of applicants based on criteria that include founder ambition, product potential and progress during the program.

In addition to Zliide, previous winners include Enfuce, the card issuing processing company from Finland; Doconomy, the sustainable banking service from Sweden; Aprila Bank, the small business lending platform from Norway; and Single Earth, the client action service provider from Estonia.

In the words of this spring’s selection committee, Vibrant.io was selected as the FINITIV program winner “on account of its global ambitions, clear customer value, ability to execute and overall readiness to scale.”

Vibrant’s small-merchant-focused payment app uses tap-on-phone technology to transform any Android smartphone into a contactless payment terminal. Since launching in Q1 2022, Vibrant has received full security approval from Mastercard and Visa. The company is certified and PCI compliant and has won different industry nominations including Best in Class (Paris Fintech Forum) and Best Startup (Copenhagen Fintech). EY also nominated Vibrant CEO Kasper Enggaard Krog to its Entrepreneur of the Year list.

“We are extremely grateful for winning Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV program among so many great fintechs. Vibrant is growing rapidly, and Mastercard’s global network and deep insights have been a true gamechanger for us and this fuels us with energy to go cross-Europe even faster” says Kasper Krog, CEO & Co-Founder at Vibrant

“Small business owners and their customers need simpler, easier, and more accessible ways of paying and accepting payment. And fortunately, those options are increasingly available, thought companies like Vibrant who provide a tap-on-phone payment terminal to small and medium merchants. We have been impressed with the team´s ambitions and speed and we hope for a fruitful collaboration”, says Mats Taraldsson, Head of Innovation, Fintech and Impact-tech Engagement, Mastercard Nordics and Baltics.“Small business owners and their customers need simpler, easier, and more accessible ways of paying and accepting payment. And fortunately, those options are increasingly available, thought companies like Vibrant who provide a tap-on-phone payment terminal to small and medium merchants. We have been impressed with the team´s ambitions and speed and we hope for a fruitful collaboration”, says Mats Taraldsson, Head of Innovation, Fintech and Impact-tech Engagement, Mastercard Nordics and Baltics.

Aside from Vibrant, several other start-ups stood out in this spring’s FINITIV class. Vayapay, the contactless payment solution focused on public transit, won the program’s Norwegian class due to clear partnership potential with Mastercard. Tipit, the contactless payment solution co- founded by Tautvydas Grinius (a former product manager at Vinted, the $4.5 billion Lithuanian startup) was selected as FINITIV’s top startup from Lithuania. Lendwill, the Norwegian peer-to- peer lending platform, won the Mastercard Lighthouse Circle investor award after receiving the most inbound interest from Investors (investors who are interested in joining the Lighthouse Investor Circle can register interest here).

“Among all the awards to be won, getting the recognition from Mastercard’s investor circle was the most important to us. We’re about to raise our first big round, and this award brings us immense inspiration and a great push forward,” said Anzhelika and Tatiana from Lendwill”, says Anzhelika Osmanova, CEO at Lendwill

The Lighthouse FINITIV Program winner receives an invitation to pitch for Mastercard’s Start Path program. The next Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV Program in the Fall will start in the end of August 2022 focusing on the Swedish, Finnish and the Latvian markets. Read about the fintech trends and solutions of Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV companies in the recently published Mastercard Lighthouse Research Report.