Mastercard and Copenhagen Fintech announced today an expanded, strengthened collaboration bringing together existing and new activities with a joint focus on growth, knowledge sharing and innovation opportunities through multiple programs and services ranging from open banking to start-up programs.
Photo: Thomas Krogh Jensen, Copenhagen Fintech. Tanya Slavova and Lars Asger Petersen, Mastercard.
Photography: Christoffer Rosenfeldt.
Copenhagen has a strong fintech ecosystem and a leading position among fintech hubs globally. The hub connects both start-ups, established companies and organizations focusing on innovation and new opportunities.
Mastercard continues to grow its presence in Denmark. This includes the acquisition of Nets´ Corporate Services business and the leading open banking platform Aiia. In less than two years, Mastercard has gone from 3 to several hundred employees in Copenhagen. The company’s technology and innovation workforce are focused on developing existing and new payment solutions for the Nordics and across the globe.
Mastercard and Copenhagen Fintech are now establishing a new collaboration that brings together existing and new activities with a joint focus on growth, knowledge sharing and innovation opportunities.
"Copenhagen Fintech is a vibrant innovation hub that not only creates successful startups but has become a center for technology and innovation that inspires the fintech community. We are proud of being an active part of that - not least because we have been involved in the fintech landscape for more than a decade. We are looking forward to helping new fintech's take Nordic financial services innovation even further." says Rune Mai, Senior Vice President, Mastercard & Co-Founder of Aiia, a Mastercard company.
Lars Asger Petersen, Senior Vice President, Mastercard and CEO of Mastercard Payment Services Denmark, providing solutions for digital payment of bills, account-to-account transfers such as Betalingsservice and real-time payments adds:
"We support Copenhagen Fintech's ambition to develop Copenhagen as one of the leading fintech hubs, not only in the Nordics, but also globally. We look forward to strengthening and expanding the existing collaboration with a focus on development and growth with international perspectives."
Fintech as a strong Danish industry
Since Copenhagen Fintech was established in 2016, the number of startups, new jobs, partnerships, and investments in fintech has increased year after year. The interaction between innovative startups and the established industry is a part of the recipe for success, according to Copenhagen Fintech.
"The strength of the fintech environment in Denmark lies in partnerships, collaboration and knowledge sharing. We are proud that we can now expand the collaboration with Mastercard, which not only has a significant position within digital payment solutions and technology globally, but also sees the potential in Denmark and the Nordics as a global, digital frontrunner," says Thomas Krogh Jensen, CEO Copenhagen Fintech, and continues:
"We want to make the fintech environment in Denmark the best in the world, and therefore we must have partners with a local presence and a strong international reach. The collaboration opens new innovative opportunities for all parties in the ecosystem."
The cooperation with Mastercard involves advisory and the development for startups in the Copenhagen Fintech Lab and Mastercard Lighthouse, a Nordic and Baltic FinTech initiative that is an innovation project and accelerator program for startups. Mastercard also participates as a sponsor and presenter at Nordic Fintech Week, which will be held on 27-28 September in Copenhagen.
Contacts:
Rune Krogh Kallehauge
rk@aiia.eu
+45 25 72 70 14.
Karin Strand
Director of Communications, Mastercard
+46 72 143 8615
karin.strand@mastercard.com
Corinna Covini, Copenhagen Fintech
cco@copenhagenfintech.dk
+45 53 55 29 56.
About Copenhagen Fintech
Copenhagen Fintech is an award-winning innovation hub founded in 2016 in Denmark, with the mission to foster innovation withing the financial sector, by building a thriving fintech ecosystem. The hub stems from the close collaboration between Finans Danmark, Finansforbundet, Forsikring & Pension, The Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) and over 200 partners, sponsors and members, 44 of whom are based in Copenhagen Fintech Lab. The innovation hub has witnessed successes all across the industry, with an exponential increase in the number of startups, jobs, partnerships and investments. According to Danish financial newspaper
Børsen:
"the latest count of employees in Danish fintechs shows 4273, a clear overtake to the pension sector", and a massive result compared to the approx. 700 employees back in 2015. Investments have also followed the trend, growing from DKK 95 million in 2015 to DKK 9,5 billion in 2021.
