Basiq announces strategic investment from Visa

Visa has invested in Basiq, the API platform powering some of Australia’s most innovative banks and fintechs with financial data. Visa’s strategic investment will accelerate Basiq’s ability to meet growing API demand as the Consumer Data Right (CDR) and Open Banking plays out in the Australian market.

With increasing fintech adoption, the vast majority of global consumers either use or are aware of at least one fintech service. Since 2017, Basiq has allowed consumers to securely connect their financial institutions and data to these services, giving fintech innovators immediate access to a data network spanning all major financial institutions in Australia and New Zealand.

Julian Potter, Group Country Manager, Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, Visa, said: “We’re excited to partner with Basiq on open data, an area where Visa sees great potential to drive innovation in financial services. Visa is known for money movement, but moving digital money is fundamentally about moving data. We’re extending our network capabilities and expertise into data movement, and our investment in Basiq is a great example of how we’re supporting the rise of the open data economy in Australia.”

The Basiq platform is currently used by over 150 fintechs to create customer-centric experiences across segments such as lending, digital banking, investment, BNPL, payments and many others. As the CDR is rolled out, Basiq will expand Open Banking’s potential by providing participants with access to data and generating actionable insights based on that information.

As Basiq moves into its next phase of growth and with the investment by Visa, two key additions have been made to the Board. Cietan Kitney, Head of Strategy, Asia Pacific at Visa joins the Board. In addition, Touch Ventures has appointed Kareem Al-Bassam to the Board. Both executives bring a wealth of Technology and Payments experience to help drive Basiq’s growth strategy domestically and  in new markets. Visa joins the Board that consists of Salesforce Ventures, Reinventure, NAB Ventures, Plaid and Touch Ventures.

The partnership will enable Visa and Basiq to work jointly on new products and services and enable Australian fintechs and financial institutions to solve customer pain points and deliver new experiences. The combination of Visa’s proven infrastructure and networks together with Basiq APIs, technology and customer relationships will help accelerate the adoption of open banking in Australia by ensuring a secure, reliable platform for innovation. Basiq will help more businesses in the payment ecosystem deliver faster, simpler and cheaper payments by combining Open Banking with payment rails.

“As the world’s leader in digital payments, Visa has the trust, scale, and network capabilities to fast-track Open Banking adoption and drive fintech innovation domestically whilst also providing a global perspective from the onset. By partnering with Visa it will help accelerate our mission of providing the building blocks of financial services to businesses of all sizes”, says Damir Ćuća, CEO and founder of Basiq.