HSBC is a banking and financial services organization. The shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American Depositary Receipts. Through an international network linked by advanced technology, including a rapidly growing e-commerce capability, HSBC provides a comprehensive range of financial services: personal financial services; commercial banking; corporate, investment banking and markets; private banking, and other activities.

HSBC

Mastercard is a payments and technology company that connects consumers, businesses, merchants, and governments. They provide data services and marketing center. Their marketing materials help card portfolios and businesses. They also provide fraud prevention solutions and payment ecosystem security.

Mastercard

SBI Investment supports the business development and growth of private venture companies through fund investment. It manages and manages venture capital funds under the management philosophy of becoming a leading company responsible for the creation and development of core industries in the 21st century as a ''new industry creator''. SBI Investment has invested in a total of 986 companies in the past, of which 169 (17.1% of investment companies) have exited through IPO or M & A.

SBI Investment

Anthos, founded in 2007, invests in emerging consumer and technology companies that drive innovation and shape the future. Anthos provides strategic and operational support to entrepreneurs, enabling its portfolio companies to achieve their full potential and become industry leaders.

Anthos Capital

Avenir Growth Capital is a New York-based private investment firm focused on growth equity opportunities. It partners with visionary founders to build high-quality businesses capitalizing on paradigm shifts.

Avenir

Episode Six

Episode Six is a cloud-based financial platform that creates differentiated financial and payment products for consumers and businesses. The company's payment technology provides globally distributed ledgers and processing, allowing FIs and brands to digitize their payment systems in order to meet the demands of their customers. Its software sits within existing or new payments infrastructure to enable effortless development and customization of new, advanced, consumer-centric payments products. Built on an open-source code framework, its platform allows for simple, on-demand product management and offers a comprehensive set of APIs, facilitating easy development, connection, and integration.

Episode Six offers a digital ledger and payment processing infrastructure for banks and merchants to build new solutions or modernize their legacy infrastructure. Payment processing solutions include infrastructure to issue and manage physical and virtual cards (prepaid, debit, and credit) and digital wallets, with features such as interest accrual, repayment processing, and amortization schedules.

Democratizing financial technology with a suite of API-based solutions

FinTech Infrastructure

Episode Six and dash.fi Partner to Launch a Daily Net 60 Term Charge Card for Brands and Startups

DCS Card Centre

To allow FinTech companies to issue branded credit cards through their own customer interfaces. Through this partnership, E6 plans to leverage DCS's expertise to launch a unified platform, streamlining the process

NeuroKaire

Episode Six partners with DCS Card Centre to launch a card-as-a-service platform

Platforms that allow FinTechs to integrate banking services such as opening and maintaining accounts, facilitating card payments, etc.


Loop

Episode Six partnered with Loop to expand reach in Saudi Arabia

Episode Six (E6), a global leader in payment infrastructure, joins Mastercard Engage Programme for instalments in Europe amid rising demand for buy-now-pay-later solutions.

Buy Now, Pay Later

These companies offer merchants and financial institutions a white-label product to provide in-house BNPL solutions.

Episode Six offers a digital ledger and payment processing infrastructure for banks and merchants to build new solutions or modernize their legacy infrastructure. Payment processing solutions include infrastructure to issue and manage physical and virtual cards (prepaid, debit, and credit) and digital wallets, with features such as interest accrual, repayment processing, and amortization schedules.Its payment infrastructure reportedly supports currencies, languages, and regulatory requirements across the globe, thereby supporting multinational business operations. Episode Six reportedly operates in 38 countries (as of May 2023), with teams in the US, Europe, Japan, and Australia, among others.The company expanded its platform in September 2023, by launching a “business now, pay later” solution for commercial banks to meet working capital needs of small and medium-sizes enterprises (SMEs), through tailored installment offerings.Key customer and partnershipsIn April 2024, Episode Six <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/28529">partnered with </a>Saudi Arabia-based Loop, an e-money institution, to expand product reach across Saudi Arabia. The company also <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/28762">partnered with DCS Card Centre</a>, a Singapore-licensed financial institution, to allow FinTech companies to issue branded credit cards through their own customer interfaces. In February 2024, Episode Six was selected to join the <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/26668">Mastercard Engage Programme </a>, a program that allows collaborators to accelerate time to market on product innovation to offer installment payment solutions across Europe.Funding and financialsIn May 2023, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18872">Episode Six raised USD 48 million </a>in Series C funding, led by Avenir, to invest in scaling its business and driving go-to-market efforts.

Cross River Bank provides a white-label banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform for enterprises, combining banking services, payments, and marketplace lending infrastructure to build fintechs. Its solutions comprise demand deposits, savings accounts, credit and debit cards, and payment clearing services, including automated clearing house (ACH) and real-time payments. The company also provides banking and payment infrastructure for the crypto industry, including risk management services for its crypto clients.Cross River Bank has expanded its operations by acquiring Betterfin, a platform offering lending-as-a-service (LaaS) solutions, in November 2021. Through the acquisition, Cross River Bank leveraged Betterfin’s software to digitize parts of the small-business lending process (such as origination and underwriting).&nbsp;Key customers and partnerships&nbsp; As of November 2024, Cross River had over 80 clients, including lenders such as Affirm, Best Egg, and Upstart, neobanks such as <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/220119">Revolut</a>, and blockchain-based payment processing platform GreenBox. The platform reportedly originated over USD 24 billion in loans per annum, around 10x the value of loans it originated in 2015.As of November 2024, the company had over 500 employees and had entered more than 80 partnerships.&nbsp;In September 2024, Cross River Bank partnered with Forward, an embedded payments company, to offer payouts-as-service solutions featuring same-day automated clearing house (ACH) payouts through Forward's proprietary API technology.&nbsp;Cross River Bank also teamed up with UK-based BaaS provider <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/421515">Railsr</a> in January 2019 to launch a common API for their platforms to be used globally.The company partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/1643">American Express</a> (Amex) to enable FinTechs to issue credit cards through Cross River Bank, on the Amex network, while also providing select Amex benefits to the FinTechs.&nbsp;

Cross River Bank

Synctera was co-founded in 2020 by Peter Hazlehurst, the former head of Uber Money, who previously led the development of Google Wallet. The company offers an API-based infrastructure platform for community and regional banks to find and partner with FinTechs. This enables FinTechs to leverage the former’s licenses to embed FDIC-insured mobile checking, debit cards, savings accounts, and payment innovations, among other features. The API platform offered to the banks will then be sold to the FinTechs to code on. Although the end customers interact with the FinTechs, they legally belong to the bank.<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8117">Synctera mainly charges the banks </a>based on the interchange fees they earn (half of the interchange fees, as of January 2022) from the services provided. It does not charge them an initial amount to use the platform. Moreover, the platform also embeds fraud-as-a-service and charges FinTechs on a per transaction basis (4 cents per transaction) should they choose to use it. It subsequently shares that revenue 50/50 with the banks.The company launched the “t-minus10” project in January 2022, which offers a live sandbox for FinTechs to build apps, test, and go to market, enhancing their access to banking partners. It subsequently launched a “Smart Charge Card” (APIs to build, launch, and issue charge cards) and “White-label Banking App” (a codebase for developers to build embedded banking products or neobank apps) infrastructure in October 2022.Key customers and partnershipsIn February 2022, Lineage Bank (a community bank in Tennessee) and GoGetr (FinTech aiming to promote health and wealth management) became the first companies to launch a banking solution using the Synctera platform. As of March 2023, the platform was working with around 50 fintechs, of which 14 were live (including Wayapay and Float). Synctera reportedly had over 20 implementations set for launch in the following two months.Synctera announced a new card issuing and management infrastructure offering (Card-as-a-Service), in July 2021, which it developed in partnership with Mastercard and leading card issuing infrastructure disruptor, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/64287">Marqeta</a>.In August 2024, Synctera partnered with<a href="https://thepaypers.com/payments-general/synctera-partners-marqeta-to-introduce-fleet-cards--1269833"> Marqeta&nbsp;</a>to develop a fleet card solution that helps companies create and manage their own fleet card and banking products.

Synctera

Based in the UK, Weavr, formerly known as Open Payments Cloud, was spun out of payment provider Ixaris in 2019. Weavr offers the infrastructure for enterprises to embed banking services across various industries, including education, fitness, logistics, etc. Weavr’s “Meta” platform combines multiple banking and payments partners in one platform through application programming interfaces (APIs). Using the APIs, enterprises can embed virtual banking services such as card payments, fund transfers, and international banking accounts.Weavr expanded its operations to Singapore in November 2022, as part of its global expansion plans.In March 2023, the company acquired Comma Payments in a primarily equity-based transaction to integrate the latter’s technology. The integration will allow customers to transition from making payments via existing bank accounts to using Weavr-provided accounts with enhanced controls and payment options.Key customers and partnershipsAs of February 2023, Weavr had served over 1,500 enterprises, including Wectory, AllGravy, Corplife, Finway, Thanks Ben, and MySkillCamp.&nbsp;In October 2019, Weavr partnered with payment service providers Global Processing Services (GPS), Paynetics, and iDenfy to enable developers to create and run sophisticated and streamlined payment experiences for their European customers through Weavr.In June 2023, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.weavr.io/blog/weavr-and-visa-to-deliver-embedded-finance-to-the-global-stage/">partnered with Visa</a> to integrate its financial plug-ins with Visa's payment capabilities to create embedded finance solutions that are easy to deploy and cost-effective.

Weavr

MX offers an open finance portal, data connectivity application programming interface (API), and MX platform API for banks, credit unions, and other financial service providers. The company’s solutions allow its clients to utilize financial data to reduce fraud, approve loans faster, and improve their customer experiences. In addition to APIs and connections, MX also offers a range of capabilities, including data aggregation, analytics, financial feed insights, wealth and investment services, and verification services.MX looks to enable banks and financial institutions to launch next-generation services and apps that automate and personalize financial experiences.Key customers and partnershipsAs of January 2021, the company noted that it worked with more than 1800 banks, credit unions, and FinTech companies, and its platform reached over 200 million end-users. Moreover, it also powered 43 of the top 50 digital banks as of the same period.&nbsp;As of November 2024, the company maintained connections with more than 13,000 financial institutions and FinTechs. Moreover, the company had processed transactions worth USD 170 billion, averaging around USD 150 million per day.In November 2024, the company partnered with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pymnts.com/news/banking/2024/american-express-forms-data-sharing-partnership-with-mx/">American Express</a> to enable the latter’s customers to securely connect their accounts with third-party financial institutions and FinTech apps through MX's platform.In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8753?industryIds=53">February 2022, MX partnered</a> with&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/361160">Rize</a>, to enable users to access Rize’s banking infrastructure to build, launch, and scale financial products through a single API, thereby reducing the development time and cost.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Bankable is a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) infrastructure provider allowing financial institutions and corporations to utilize its API to integrate banking services. It provides a platform for its enterprise customers to offer modular banking services, including ledger management (process data from multiple banks to support cash management for global corporate affairs), digital banking, payment cards, and e-wallets. The company expanded its platform by <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19662">acquiring Arex Markets </a>in June 2023, to embed working capital solutions (such as flexible invoice financing, corporate credit cards, lodged cars, and revolving credit).The company has a global presence, with operations spanning from the US to the Middle East as of January 2021. Bankable noted that the expansion of its global footprint also helps its European and US FinTech clients expand their operations internationally.Key customers and partnershipsIn January 2020, the company partnered with the diversified FinTech infrastructure provider <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/85350">Plaid </a>, which enabled Bankable’s customers to use Plaid’s tech to connect to more than 15,000 banks in the US and Europe.

Bankable

Platforms that enable FinTechs to integrate a range of payment-related services such as one-time payments, subscriptions, and receipt management for domestic and cross-border transactions.


Companies that enable organizations to embed anti-money laundering (AML), identity verification, and know-your-customer (KYC) solutions.


Platforms that allow FinTechs to integrate lending services,  by typically applying AI/ML technology to a spending analysis to analyze creditworthiness.

Companies providing APIs and integrations for FinTechs to access securities markets, facilitate transactions and clearing, and provide insights to help end-users manage their finances.

May specialize in promoting inclusiveness in financial services, primarily in the investment and lending spaces

AI/ML can improve the quality of their offerings, such as using AI/ML to reduce biases

Used for payment completions, accessing banking and transaction data, and providing financial insights, among others

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 Payment processing platform Episode Six (E6) has joined forces with DCS Card Centre, a Singapore-licensed financial institution. Their aim is to help FinTech companies launch their own branded credit cards through their customer interfaces.
 E6 intends to use DCS's expertise to introduce a unified platform that simplifies the process of launching a new credit card. By addressing regulatory, operational, and technical issues, this unified platform will reduce the time to launch a new credit card from four to six months to just a few weeks.
 The new platform will initially be launched in Singapore before being expanded to other markets in the Asia Pacific region.
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 With this launch, E6 enters the space of cards as a service, a market catered to by several players in our coverage, such as <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/23011"> Marqeta </a> and <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/23012"> Highnote </a> , who provide credit card issuing and management offerings targeting consumer and commercial card programs.

Episode Six

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