Registry — Vantage Bank Texas (US) added to the registry
Enforcement — Termination of Enforcement Action issued against Deutsche Bank AG, DB USA Corporation, and Deutsche Bank AG New York Branch · Federal Reserve · Aug 25, 2026
Partnership — Revolut Japan Partners with Minna no Ginko via BaaS Banking Agency Agreement · Aug 25, 2026
Product — Absa Develops Embedded Payment Tool for Township Small Businesses · Aug 22, 2026
M&A — I-Remit Approves P20 Million Capital Infusion Into Surepay Technologies · Aug 22, 2026
Funding — Startup Embedd Raises Pre-Seed Investment Round · Aug 25, 2026
Deal Feed
Partnerships, funding rounds, product launches, and M&A across the ecosystem.
Deserve secured $50M in Series D funding led by Mastercard to scale its white-label credit card technology. The platform offers API/SDK features for instant card issuance and AI-driven profitability tools. Partnerships like Opportunity Financial's OppFi Card demonstrate the embedded finance model in action.
BaaS startup Synctera raised a $33 million Series A led by Fin VC, with participation from sponsor bank partners Veritex Community Bank, Midland States Bank, and Emigrant Bank. The company also announced a partnership with National Bank of Canada to help companies launch fintech apps and embedded banking products in Canada. Synctera emphasized a multibank structure to address BaaS pain points and regulatory concerns.
German fintech Raisin announced its first U.S. banking-as-a-service partner, Dallas-based MapleMark Bank, following 18 months of preparation for U.S. market entry. The partnership enables Raisin to offer its savings marketplace product to American consumers. This marks a significant transatlantic expansion for the European deposit marketplace platform.
House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Chairman Jim Clyburn sent a letter to Cross River Bank on May 27, 2021, investigating the fintech-bank's role in Paycheck Protection Program fraud. Cross River, a key BaaS partner bank for fintech lenders, faced scrutiny over its PPP lending practices. The inquiry highlighted risks in the fintech-bank partnership model for government lending programs.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.