Latest investment focuses on hospitality sector.
Santander has announced a $5 million investment in mobile payment and loyalty provider MyCheck.
The bank’s investment, the first issued through the Santander Innoventures Fund, will allow its 107 retail and commercial customers of the bank to use the fintech firm’s technology.
The funds will be used to boost the fintech start-up’s international expansion, increase its sales and marketing capacity and increase its business intelligence capabilities. Santander will obtain an equity stake in the business.
The Israeli start-up, founded in 2011, focuses on point-of-sale integration and user experience to allow users to check into venues, pay securely and receive offers on their smart device.
The last six months have seen 320 percent growth in the company’s transaction volumes. MyCheck switched to a technology platform approach, enabling the payment experience in private label apps for restaurants and providing MyCheck Inside capabilities to other apps that want to reach the hospitality market.
Mariano Belinky, Managing Director of the Santander Innoventures Fund, said: "We established the Innoventures Fund to support startup Fintech companies who are at the cutting edge of digital delivery of financial services and in MyCheck we have found this.
"The investment in MyCheck highlights our leadership in financial technology, investing in services which seek to benefit customers in their everyday financial transactions."
Shlomit Kugler, co-founder and CEO of MyCheck, said: "Santander is an ideal investor and partner for MyCheck. The company shares our vision and our passion for financial technology that improves the lives of people and helps businesses and economies to grow. We have already secured hundreds of thousands of users.
"With Santander’s support we can scale rapidly and capitalise on our leadership position in the hospitality sector. This investment is a validation of MyCheck’s market proposition, its business model, its technology and its people. We’re proud to have this vote of confidence from Santander and be the first to receive an investment from their Innoventures Fund."
