Visa launched its Fintech Partner Connect program to help banks and financial institutions access Visa-certified fintech providers for embedded finance capabilities. The program includes partners like Alloy, Jumio, and Onfido, offering digital-first banking, payments, and account opening solutions. It aims to reduce costs and complexity for issuing partners building seamless digital experiences.
The Nebraska Legislature passed Legislative Bill 649 on May 20, 2021, adopting the Nebraska Financial Innovation Act. The law authorizes the chartering of Digital Asset Banks, making Nebraska the second U.S. state to create this type of financial institution. The charter is designed to allow banks to custody cryptocurrency.
Green Dot Corporation agreed to acquire Republic Bank & Trust Company's Tax Refund Solutions (TRS) business for approximately $165 million in cash. Republic Bank serves as a sponsor bank in fintech contexts, providing banking services like tax refund processing. The deal was expected to close in Q4 2021 with Republic Bank providing transition services through 2022.
Entities: Green Dot Corporation · Republic Bank & Trust Company
Clair, a US fintech offering instant pay access for hourly and gig workers, partnered with sponsor bank MetaBank and payments processor Galileo. The partnership enables FDIC-insured deposit accounts with no monthly, inactivity, or overdraft fees, along with savings and financial planning tools. MetaBank serves as the issuing bank while Galileo handles payment processing to improve financial inclusion.
Chicago-based banking infrastructure provider Amount raised $99 million in Series D funding, achieving unicorn status. The round was led by WestCap with participation from Goldman Sachs, Hanaco Ventures, Invus Opportunities, and Barclays Principal Investments. Amount provides APIs and enterprise software helping banks compete with fintechs in retail lending and BNPL.
Entities: Amount · WestCap · Hanaco Ventures · Goldman Sachs · Invus Opportunities · Barclays Principal Investments · HSBC · TD Bank · Regions · Banco Popular · Barclays US Consumer Bank · Avant
TAB Bank partnered with Volante Technologies to launch real-time payments capabilities, enhancing its digital banking services for SME clients. The integration enables TAB Bank to process instant payments, improving cash flow management for small and medium businesses. This partnership highlights how community and digital-first banks are leveraging fintech infrastructure to compete with larger institutions.
Treasury Prime, a US-based BaaS platform, announced its Series B funding round on May 12, 2021. The round accompanied the addition of new bank partners including Pacific Western Bank and Piermont Bank. The funding aims to scale Treasury Prime's API-based platform connecting fintechs with partner banks.
Entities: Treasury Prime · Pacific Western Bank · Piermont Bank
IXOPAY partnered with Volt to integrate account-to-account payments into its white-label payments orchestration platform, connecting over 4,500 European banks via Open Banking APIs. The partnership enables merchants and platforms to offer real-time bank payments alongside traditional methods. This expands embedded payment options across the European market.
State Bank of India issued an RFP seeking a white-label fintech solution to develop and integrate lending journeys on SBI platforms, with bids due May 5, 2021. The initiative signals India's largest public bank embracing embedded lending through fintech partnerships. This move reflects broader BaaS adoption among large traditional banks in APAC.
Mastercard selected Jifiti as one of six fintech innovators for its Start Path program, focused on sustainable lending. Jifiti offers an end-to-end white-labeled BNPL solution enabling banks and lenders to launch consumer financing with zero POS integration. The six-month partnership provides Mastercard technology access, expertise, and scaling support.
NorthOne partnered with The Bancorp Bank to provide small business banking services, with Bancorp serving as the chartered bank behind NorthOne's fintech platform. The arrangement is a classic BaaS model where a licensed bank enables a fintech to offer FDIC-insured accounts. This partnership highlights the continued growth of bank-fintech collaborations for SME-focused embedded finance.
Step, a teen-focused banking startup, raised $100M in funding backed by celebrity investors including Will Smith and Justin Timberlake. The platform provides banking accounts, debit cards, and financial literacy tools for teenagers, built on BaaS infrastructure through a sponsor bank partnership.
Deserve launched a digital-first credit card software platform targeting embedded finance use cases. The API-driven platform enables clients to issue cards digitally and embed spend management and rewards features within their own apps. Deserve already powers credit cards for Sallie Mae, BlockFi, and OppFi.
Current, a mobile banking and payments platform, raised $220M in a Series D round led by Andreessen Horowitz, tripling its valuation to $2.2 billion. The round brought total funding to $402.4M. Current offers embedded banking services including direct deposit, debit cards, and savings features targeted at underbanked consumers.
Brex expanded its instant payouts service to merchants using PayPal, Square, and Stripe, enabling immediate access to earnings for a fee. Previously the feature was limited to Amazon and Shopify users. The expansion aims to improve cash flow for Brex customers who also benefit from free wires, ACH transfers, expense management, and rewards.
FintechOS raised $60 million in Series B funding to scale its low-code platform that enables banks and insurers to rapidly build and deploy digital financial products. The platform supports embedded finance use cases by allowing financial institutions to modernize and digitize their product offerings. This funding round highlights growing investor interest in infrastructure enabling embedded financial services.
Mastercard chose Aion Bank, powered by the Vodeno Cloud Platform, as a strategic partner for its Fintech Express program in Europe. The partnership enables European fintechs to access cloud-native digital banking services including embedded finance features like decoupled debit, BNPL, and merchant finance. This significantly lowers barriers for fintechs seeking to embed financial services without traditional banking infrastructure.
Mogo's Carta Worldwide announced an expanded debit card issuance partnership with LendingClub Bank to enable fintech challenger banks to deploy digital banking solutions. Carta's modern card issuing platform offers virtual and physical card products with advanced authorization controls and extensive configurability via APIs.
Entities: Carta Worldwide · Mogo · LendingClub Bank
Minna Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fukuoka Financial Group, announced it would commence commercial operations in May 2021 as Japan's first fully digital bank. Built on a Google Cloud-based core banking system developed with Accenture, Minna Bank offers embedded finance capabilities via flexible APIs and a BaaS model. The bank aims to enable third-party partners to create embedded finance products, starting in Asia.
Entities: Minna Bank · Fukuoka Financial Group · Accenture · Google Cloud
Brick, a Southeast Asian financial API provider, raised an undisclosed seed round led by Better Tomorrow Ventures. The platform offers APIs for identity verification and financial data access, partnering with Indonesia's seven largest banks covering 90% of accounts. The funding supports expansion to Singapore, Philippines, and Vietnam.
M2P Fintech (formerly YAP) secured $10 million in Series B funding co-led by Flourish Ventures and Omidyar Network India. The company provides payments infrastructure APIs used by over 300 businesses including Ola, Cred, and Razorpay. M2P partners with 20+ banks to enable embedded finance across multiple countries.
Entities: M2P Fintech · Flourish Ventures · Omidyar Network India · BEENEXT · 8i Ventures · DMI Group · Better Capital
Cheese, a Pasadena-based fintech, launched a digital banking platform on March 10, 2021, targeting Asian-American and immigrant communities. The platform offers zero-fee FDIC-insured accounts via Coastal Community Bank, debit Mastercard cards, cashback rewards up to 10%, and early direct deposit. Cheese integrates embedded fintech features with a social impact mission, pledging $100,000 in donations to Asian nonprofits.
Entities: Cheese · Coastal Community Bank · Mastercard
SoFi announced a $22.3 million acquisition of Golden Pacific Bancorp, a small community bank in Sacramento, to obtain a national bank charter. The deal enables SoFi to reduce its reliance on sponsor bank partnerships and directly offer banking products. This represents a significant strategic shift for the fintech toward becoming a chartered bank.
Priority Technology Holdings (NASDAQ: PRTH) announced a definitive agreement to acquire Finxera Holdings, a Banking-as-a-Service platform provider. The combined entity targets pro forma 2021 revenue of ~$540 million and Adjusted EBITDA of ~$130 million. The deal merges Priority's payments technology with Finxera's BaaS capabilities for rapid banking integration, virtual banking, and e-wallets.