HSBC Ventures Pours $35M Into Mobile Money App Monese for Expansion
Monese has announced a $35 million investment from HSBC, which now sees Monese’s total raised to $208 million, a press release said.
Both companies are looking at expanding their digital banking possibilities, with HSBC’s investment part of a “broader, strategic partnership” to focus on Monese’s cloud-based Platform as a Service business.
Taylan Turan, Group Head of Retail Banking and Strategy, Wealth and Personal Banking at HSBC, said: “HSBC is continually pioneering new wealth and banking innovations for our digitally-savvy customers - we want to help clients make smarter decisions so they can meet their financial goals with innovative digital tools. This new partnership is a key step towards helping us deliver digital wealth and banking tools at pace and scale, combining Monese’s fintech credentials with our own global wealth and banking capabilities.”
Meanwhile, Catherine Zhou, Global Head of Ventures, Digital Partnerships and Innovation at HSBC Ventures, said the investment “will provide stronger strategic alignment and enable us to build on our strengths as partners.”
And Monese founder and CEO Norris Koppel said the company was glad to have a partnership with HSBC, which has experience with “exceptional” banking service.
“Securing the support of a tier one global bank demonstrates the strength of our platform and the continued appetite from investors in the platform,” he said.
HSBC has also recently become a global partner for the Mastercard Installments buy now pay later (BNPL) program in the U.K., PYMNTS wrote.
Read more: Mastercard Installments Adds HSBC, JPMorgan, NatWest, Others as BNPL Partners
This will see Mastercard continuing to try and add more ways for small businesses to offer flexible payment options for customers.
J.P. Morgan and NatWest were also added to the Installments program, along with Cross River, Evolve Bank & Trust, Jifiti, Live Oak Bank, MOCA Financial and WebBank in the U.S.; and Saudi National Bank in Saudi Arabia, PYMNTS wrote.
“We believe no matter how you pay, a foundation of strong protections must be in place,” said Craig Vosburg, chief product officer at Mastercard. “Trust is the currency of innovation. Using a Responsible-by-Design approach ensures that we stay ahead of consumer, merchant and bank needs and expectations, continuously building confidence in the payments ecosystem by providing choice at scale.”