Top 3 FinTech companies transforming the financial space in Iceland

By Megha Bhattacharya

The Nordic FinTech market has been diversifying rapidly with the addition of new technologies and companies. According to the European Payments Council, the payments industry in Iceland has expanded with the introduction of new payment methods, leading to changes in our customers’ behaviour. Changes due to regulations are inevitable, and the focus on Application Programming Interface service in payments is more important now than before.

FinTech solutions are provided by the three largest commercial banks in the country, namely Landsbankinn, Íslandsbanki, and Arion Bank, but also by a growing list of independent businesses and startups which are leveraging cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence and blockchain to reinvent the sector.

Check out these top Iceland-based FinTech companies –

1. Meniga

Founded in 2009, Meniga provides white-label digital banking solutions. The company has developed a framework for digital banking around advanced data consolidation and enrichment, customer engagement and new revenue opportunities. It offers white-label Personal Finance Management (PFM) and next-generation online banking solutions.

Recently, FinTech Meniga teamed up with financial services company UniCredit to launch an enhanced version of the ‘Mobilna Banka Go!’ in Slovenia. The partnership has already resulted in a next-generation digital banking solution that has helped improve the overall user experience of UniCredit’s customers. ‘Mobilna Banka Go!’ aims to boost UniCredit’s customer engagement and loyalty.

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 company has offices in Reykjavik, London, Stockholm, Helsinki, Warsaw, Barcelona and Singapore.

2. Monerium

FinTech Monerium is a provider of licensed e-money for blockchains. Using e-money issued by Monerium, individuals and businesses can store and send programmable digital currency online without going through traditional financial institutions and payment providers.

Recently, Monerium entered into a partnership with open-source blockchain protocol Algorand in a bid to support the latter’s protocol in 2020 with its e-money solution. In 2019, it raised $2 million in a seed fundraise organized by the Nordic venture capital fund, Crowberry Capital along with NY-based blockchain software technology company, ConsenSys, and Hof Holdings.

Founded in September 2016, Monerium aims to bridge the gap between fiat money and blockchain. With a head office in Reykjavik, Iceland, the Monerium founding team of Gísli Kristjánsson, Hjörtur Hjartarson, Jón Helgi Egilsson, and Sveinn Valfells, has expanded the company to now include fourteen people based across Iceland, Sweden, the US and UK.

3. Memento Payments

Memento is a digital wallet specialist offering next-generation social payment platforms for banks. The company is the developer of Kass, the payments app white-labelled by Íslandsbanki in 2016. Kass aims to solve all payment needs within one wallet service, including paying friends, splitting costs, buying online or instore and more.

Recently, Memento Payments teamed up with Neonomics. Memento offers clients the ability to assemble multiple service providers to operate as one complete end-customer solution. This collaboration with Neonomics aims to launch customized, top-quality digital products to market for banks and FinTechs at a fraction of the time and cost.

The company, last year, made an agreement with a US-based Marygold and Co. to build a new banking solution. The new solution is aimed at young professionals in the San Francisco area that live by the FIRE lifestyle ( Financial Independent Retire Early) – a lifestyle where people live sustainably and take control of their financial health.

ALSO, READ: Open Banking Roadmap for Mid-sized banks in Europe by IBS Intelligence