Railsbank, the open banking and compliance platform, has picked up further investment, following the companys $10 million Series A in September 2019.This time backing comes from Visa a strategic investment, if you will along with Global Brain, a venture capital firm based in Tokyo, Japan.
The exact amount isnt being disclosed, though sources peg it as several million United States dollars.In addition to investment, Railsbank is announcing that it has signed a 5 year partnership with Visa to deliver Banking as a Service (BaaS) innovation in Southeast Asia, and recently became a Visa principal issuing member.Being a principal Visa member and by joining Visas Fintech Fast Track Programme, Railsbank can now access Visas growing partner network, technologies and experts, enabling Railsbanks customers to rapidly and effectively launch Visa based products throughout Asia and beyond, explains the company.Railsbank co-founder and CEO Nigel Verdon, who previously founded Currencycloud, says the partnership with Visa signals the fintechs intent to be the most innovative banking platform business in Asia-Pacific.
Our API focused platform is the simplest way for any business or brands to quickly conceptualise, build and launch digital finance products that easily incorporate Visas product suite and capabilities, he adds.To that end, Railsbank positions itself as a utility on which other companies spanning fintech upstarts, challenger brands, to incumbent banks that want to re-factor their tech can build and sell various financial services or add fintech features to their products.When the company closed it Series A, Verdon likened it to what Amazon has done for data centres with AWS.
Railsbank is a utility for the compete financial services backend: platform, connectivity, operations, scheme memberships (e.g.
Visa), regulation, and compliance, he told me at the time.Cue statement from Naoki Kamimaeda, Partner and Europe Office Representative of Global Brain Corporation: We see huge potential in Railsbanks vision and open banking platform.
Corporates, especially in Asia, are more willing to have banking services and Railsbank can provide them with a turnkey solution for this.
We are very excited to join Railsbanks bold vision and look forward to actively supporting its expansion and penetration in Japan and Asia.Railsbank is headquartered in London, but also has offices in Singapore, Lithuania, the Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, I understand that it could announce United States expansion plans in the coming weeks.