Brankas, an open finance technology company based in Indonesia but operates regionally, has secured US$20 million in the Series B financing round led by Insignia Ventures Partners.
The co-investors are Visa, fintech VC fund AFG Partners, and Treasury International (backed by veteran fintech founders Jeff Cruttenden of Acorns and Eli Broverman of Betterment).
Existing investors BEENEXT and Integra Partners also participated.
With the fresh investment, the firm intends to extend its product portfolio in payments, data, and banking-as-a-service API products and strengthen its capacity by doubling its team of more than 100 staff in 17 countries.
Brankas will also scale its network of more than 40 financial institutions and more than 100 technological firms, which utilise its embedded finance APIs to design, roll out, and manage digital experiences across a variety of use cases, including digital banking, online credit scoring, e-commerce, and gig economy payment.
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Brankas was launched in 2016 by CEO Todd D Schweitzer and CTO Kenneth Shaw. Graduating from Plug And Play’s first incubator in Southeast Asia, the startup offers API-based solutions, data, and payment solutions for financial service providers (banks, lenders, and e-wallets) and online enterprises.
The fintech firm works with banks to design and maintain their open finance infrastructure, including APIs for real-time payments, identification and data, account opening, remittances, and other services. This allows financial institutions to foster their digital capabilities, expand their customer reach, and unlock new revenue streams.
For online businesses, fintech firms, and digital banks, Brankas serves as a bridge to critical data needs for verification or scoring processes, reaching previously untapped customer segments.
Brankas said that it will announce agreements with prominent digital banks and fintech leaders in Vietnam and Bangladesh early this year.
Beyond financial services, Brankas’s APIs can also be used in e-commerce to validate and secure payments on their platforms.
So far, the firm claims to have served clients in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.
Brankas also boasts of being the first firm to launch banking-as-a-service APIs for account opening and credit card issuance in the region.
Last April, the firm became one of five participants of Visa’s 2021 Accelerator Programme. It then collaborated with Visa to develop a digital credit card issuing proposition that used Visa’s data capabilities.
“Embracing Open Finance in Southeast Asia” report, which Brankas and Integras Partners conducted in July 2021, noted that open finance has sparked interest in the SEA region’s central banks. However, the adoption strategies differ from nation to nation, with some favouring a market-led approach and others opting for a regulatory-driven one.
As stated by Bain & Company in 2019, over 70 per cent of Southeast Asian consumers lack access to financial services, and millions of small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) face significant financial shortfalls.
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Image Credit: Brankas
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