FinTech News

Mastercard Announces 5-Year Global Partnership with Zeta

It looks as though we can expect plenty more credit card options from FinTech firms and neobanks in the near future. Recently, Zeta announced a five-year global partnership with Mastercard. As a result, the two companies will launch credit cards using Zeta’s technology that operate on the Mastercard network. In addition to the partnership, it was also revealed that Mastercard has made a financial investment in Zeta. According to Crunchbase, that investment amounted to $30 million. This brings the company’s total funding to date up to $340 million, including a $250 million Series C in May of last year. The company is currently valued at $1.45 billion.

Zeta (not to be confused with the couples-focused personal finance app) is a FinTech that helps issuers launch “next gen credit cards.” This includes offering an API-enabled stack for processing, issuing, lending, and more. As it stands, Zeta has worked with 30 FinTechs and eight issuers in six countries to issue more than 10 million cards that are used for more than 300 million transactions per year.

Explaining more about what the company has to offer, Zeta co-founder and CEO Bhavin Turakhia said in a statement, “With Zeta’s next-gen credit card processing platform, we are fundamentally rewiring how issuers launch credit card programs by offering new paradigms over legacy mainframe systems. Amongst other benefits, our stack allows issuers to increase the lending book by composing contextual upsells using our extensive APIs and SDKs; reduce costs via pay-as-you-go SaaS billing; improve customer satisfaction by launching rich, self-serve experiences for card holders; and launch and iterate faster using our infinitely scalable cloud-native deployment.”

Commenting on the new partnership, Turakhia stated, “In Mastercard, we have a partner that is committed to undertake this journey with us and truly believes in this mission.” Meanwhile, Mastercard EVP of Products & Innovation for Asia Pacific Sandeep Malhotra said of working with the FinTech, “By deploying Zeta’s credit processing stack, issuers will have an opportunity to grow their user base, drive higher usage and enter new geographical markets, all while accelerating the cashless revolution around the world.”

The partnership between Zeta and Mastercard comes as several FinTechs have begun rolling out credit card options following many a foray into the world of debit cards. For example, SoFi officially launched its credit card last year. Meanwhile, the environmentally-minded neobank Aspiration rolled out its credit card offering earlier this year. Incidentally, both products are Mastercards.

With the backing (and investment) of Mastercard, Zeta seems well-positioned for a true breakout moment. Seeing as the FinTech sector only continues to grow, surely there are many startups looking to shake up the credit card market. With that, expect to see such a scenario play out in the year ahead.

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