Meniga establishes US sales operation in New York

By Robin Amlot

Meniga has expanded its business to the US, with a dedicated team appointed to drive sales operations. The new US team – operating remotely before opening planned premises in New York in 2021 – will be headed up by North America Heads of Sales, Wim Van Lerberghe and Paul Renken. The company said it had been established in response to increasing demand in the sector for digital solutions, demand that has accelerated due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Wim Van Lerberghe has more than two decades’ experience in international B2B financial services sales, with the past few years spent in the technology sector, particularly focussing on scaling fintechs in the US as co-founder of consultancy firm Advintro. Paul Renken, also a co-founder of Advintro, brings expertise in sales, strategy and business development from numerous top-level roles within the technology, financial services and investment banking sectors in the US.

By opening its doors to the US, Meniga is now consolidating its global market presence, with over 165 banking partners across more than 30 countries, and offices in London (its HQ), Reykjavik, Stockholm, Warsaw, Barcelona and Singapore.

In Europe, Meniga has developed digital tools for some of the world’s largest financial institutions, such as UniCredit and Santander. Since entering the Southeast Asian market in 2019, it has launched a range of banking apps in the region, for the likes of Singaporean multinational banking group, UOB.

Paul Renken, North America Head of Sales, said: “In this era of rapid digitalisation, Meniga has established itself as the market leader for upholding, and increasing, the competitiveness of banks in the European market. Since expanding into the Southeast Asian market just last year, we’ve also been instrumental in getting some of the area’s most popular banking apps to market. By opening up to the US, we’re going to be leading the charge here too.

“We see banks as the bastions of the customer, designed to protect and manage assets, particularly during such a financially unstable climate. However, in order to remain competitive this means they also need to move, and digitalise, with the times. With Meniga’s technology and expertise, banks all across the States will be able to achieve this; creating a customer experience that is intuitive and seamless as well as secure and reliable.”

Georg Ludviksson, CEO and co-founder of Meniga, said: “In the current economic climate, it is crucial that Americans are getting the support they need from their banks, and help with the management of their personal finances. But if the bank fails to respond with anything but an efficient and enjoyable user experience, those customers will go elsewhere.”

Meniga’s product offering includes AI-powered personal finance management solutions, automated real-time notifications, predictive analytics and personalised engagement technologies, card-linked offers, consumer data analytics and transaction-based carbon insights. Its solutions are designed to help banks leverage data to offer more personalised services, and increase revenue through their digital channels.

The personal and business finance management solutions, which are directly integrated into a bank’s digital properties (such as internet banking or mobile apps), use data aggregation technologies to consolidate a bank’s legacy systems, account data and transaction data into a single repository.