Mastercard Launches Fintech Express in Asia Pacific; Rapyd Onboarded as the First Fintech Partner to Join the Program and Obtain an Issuing License
November 11, 2019 | SINGAPORE | By Barkha PatelPayments technology company Mastercard today launched Fintech Express. Rapyd, a B2B Fintech-as-a-Service provider, is the first partner in the program. The Fintech Express program onboards partners, such as Rapyd, at record speed and provides immediate access to a cross-functional team of experts to support multiple work streams across Product, Partnerships, Licensing and Legal. This has delivered the following benefits to Rapyd:
- Licensing as a Mastercard issuer within two weeks
- Swift integration with the Mastercard network
- Strategic counsel and advisory from Mastercard’s in-market fintech specialists
As a result of the program, Rapyd will partner Mastercard on issuing cards for Rapyd’s corporate clients in Asia Pacific. Rapyd’s API-based platform provides a wide range of customized payment solutions to regional and global eCommerce merchants, gig economy platforms, and technology providers, and helps them to quickly integrate Payments and Fintech capabilities, minimizing development timelines and time-to-market.
Powering this behind the scenes is Mastercard Fintech Express, the latest addition to the Mastercard Accelerate platform which was designed to simplify the way that Mastercard works with fintechs around the world. Through Accelerate, fintechs are offered a single-entry point to Mastercard’s wide portfolio of specialized programs that offer support and assistance throughout a fintech’s growth and transformation journey, from market entry to global expansion.
Through Fintech Express, fintechs get access to a suite of digital-first products to differentiate their offerings. Flexible commercial agreements for fintechs’ early growth stages are offered to reduce barriers to entry. To increase speed-to-market, fintechs enjoy parallel work streams driven by dedicated fintech experts. As fintechs look to scale globally, Mastercard provides global licensing support with in-market teams to accelerate their growth and execution.
“Mastercard has been the partner of choice for hundreds of fintechs globally. With the launch of Fintech Express, a tailored program that provides fintechs with what they need most - speed, scale and performance - Mastercard is celebrating a new milestone in our fintech journey. Speed is absolutely critical in the Asia Pacific region which is a dynamic hotbed for ambitious startups that are transforming the payments landscape,” said Rama Sridhar, Executive Vice President, Digital & Emerging Partnerships and New Payment Flows, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. “Rapyd is a great example of a high growth fintech platform that is meeting an unmet need in the market by enabling digital merchants, gig economy players and fintechs to scale globally. Mastercard is delighted to be part of their growth story.”
“I believe the partnership between Rapyd and Mastercard will help drive even faster growth in the region’s economy. Asia Pacific is witnessing a revolution in new payments services from both traditional players going digital, and digital innovators trying to build the next big Super-Apps. These innovators are looking for a next generation fintech platform to help them move faster and offer more services, knitting things together behind the scenes, so they can focus on scaling their operations in the region and globally. That is exactly what Rapyd does: enabling innovators to focus on the things they do best - building innovative services for their users. Rapyd, working with Mastercard, lets physical and digital card issuing be quickly integrated into these new products, helping our clients grow their user base and drive higher user adoption, while accelerating the cashless revolution in Singapore and beyond,” said Joel Yarbrough, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Rapyd.
Rapyd plans to use the license to strengthen its issuing capabilities and to extend its portfolio to clients in Singapore and beyond, providing end-to-end B2B and B2C issuing services across APAC. Integrating and managing a card issuing program can generate significant competitive advantage for many innovators, but it also can pose a significant challenge, as it requires deep vertical expertise and considerable commitment from the business. Rapyd would streamline and simplify access for regional innovators to end-to-end issuing solutions, allowing them to operate intelligent digital wallets that can easily be used across millions of points of sale within Mastercard’s global acceptance network.
Fintech Express is the newest pillar under the Mastercard Accelerate platform which comprises a range of award-winning programs that have helped participants all over the world to access and benefit from Mastercard’s ecosystem, network of customers and innovations:
- Mastercard Fintech Express – Provides fintechs with accelerated speed-to-market at every stage of their growth journey, by providing product differentiation, financial flexibility and global licensing support through dedicated in-market teams.
- Mastercard Engage - Identifies qualified technology partners and fintechs, connecting them to thousands of Mastercard partners and customers to help scale their businesses efficiently.
- Mastercard StartPath - Invites later-stage startups to participate in a 6-month program, providing opportunities to scale and secure strategic investments. More than 200 companies have participated in StartPath since its founding in 2014, and those companies have collectively gone on to raise $1.5B in capital.
- Mastercard Developers - Provides APIs for everything, empowering engineers with the ability to access Mastercard payment, security and analytics services via simple, user-friendly documentation, SDKs and sample code for the top programming languages
Mastercard Fintech Express is now accepting applications from interested companies here.
About Rapyd
Rapyd helps businesses create great local commerce experiences anywhere. The world’s most innovative ecommerce, technology firms, and marketplaces utilize our Fintech-as-a-Service platforms - Collect, Disburse, Wallet and Issuing - to seamlessly integrate Fintech and payment capabilities into their applications. By accessing the Rapyd Global Payments Network, businesses can access over 900 locally preferred payment methods including bank transfers, ewallets and cash in more than 100 countries. Now ecommerce, technology firms, and marketplaces can focus on growing new markets and reaching billions of consumers rather than building infrastructure. Investors include Oak HC/FT, Tiger Global, General Catalyst, Stripe, Target Global and others. For more information, visit www.rapyd.net
About Mastercard
Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re building a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.