Stockholm-based fintech startup Open Payments is an open banking platform that’s PSD2 compliant. The new PSD2 directive aims to increase customer protection in online payments, make cross-border payments safer, and promote the development of mobile payments and integration with fintechs.
Open Payments is a banking platform that allows third-party applications to integrate their services with banks throughout Europe, all through one single API.
Founded in 2017, the startup has now raised a seed round investment of €1.2 million from Brightly Ventures, Luminar Ventures, and angel investors. Vidici Ventures has previously invested in the company. The capital will be used to grow the team and launch the platform in the Nordic and European market.
The final date for implementation of the EU directive PSD2 is on September 14th. Open Payments has been preparing for this over the past two years by developing an advanced platform that enables companies to easily and efficiently integrate with banks’ APIs. The company has also focused on building a development portal where third-party providers and business partners can develop their own products and services under their own brand-name, using Open Payments’ white-label solution.
Open Payments offers an open and secure access point to the various bank APIs in the Nordic markets, and starting in 2020 Open Payments will expand and integrate with other banks across the EU. A third-party provider can, using one API, gain access to all the EU banks’ diversified APIs and then, through a simple white label solution, use the functions within PSD2.
“Several organisations within the EU claim that they are already operating within the framework of PSD2,” said Louise Brandt, Co-founder and CCO at Open Payments. “The majority of these organisations are using what will soon become obsolete technology and APIs based on screen scraping and reversed engineering, while our platform is fully developed with the latest technology that PSD2 requires, i.e. open and standardized APIs. Therefore, our platform is a much more secure, cost-effective and flexible solution for our customers and their end-users, giving us a huge advantage over existing solutions.”
With the new funding, Open Payments will grow the team and launch their platform in the Nordic and European markets. Right now, several collaborations are underway, and the positive response has been overwhelming.
“We met the team some time ago, and are struck by the insight, vision and execution power of the team,” said Katja Bergman at Brightly Ventures. “We are seeing powerful transformational forces beginning to reshape the global payment service landscape. Open Payments is democratizing payments, for the European retailers, businesses and banks, enabling many new innovations, with a positive effect to European businesses and consumers. One could say that Open Payments transforms and opens up payments, like Linux transformed operating systems.”
