The UK is a European leader in its adoption of open banking tech, says Daniel Kjellén, the co-founder and CEO of Swedish-headquartered open banking firm Tink.
Tink yesterday announced a €90 million funding round, co-led by London-based B2B software venture capital firm Dawn Capital and San Francisco-based investment management firm HMI Capital.
The latest investment takes the firm’s valuation to €415m.
Its offering is a set of APIs which allow third parties to both create financial applications and integrate existing FinTech offerings into existing banking technology.
The tech is now live in the UK, alongside Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands and its home country of Sweden.
Kjellén, who co-founded the firm in 2012, told BusinessCloud that the UK will be a key player in its international expansion.
“The UK is charging ahead of the rest of Europe in its open banking journey,” he said.
“We know that both UK and Irish banks want to be able to tap into technology like ours in order to develop smart, customer-centric products.”
Its London office is one of eight around the globe, which also includes Paris, Milan, and Copenhagen.
Its entry into the UK market was part of a proactive effort which the company dubbed ‘Project Win UK’ last year.
In blog posts, the firm detailed how it built relationships and then integrated technology with both the UK’s incumbent and challenger banks.
Its UK clients include Natwest, which last year integrated Tink’s personal finance management and data enrichment technology into its mobile app.
Kjellén said that the firm hopes to achieve a market-leading position in the UK within the next 12 months.
“We want to accomplish this by growing our partnerships with banks of all shapes and sizes – from traditional players to some of the exciting challenger banks and FinTechs that are thriving in the UK market,” he said.
“We intend to prove our value as a strategic partner for banks within these markets, helping them to embrace the exciting open banking opportunities ahead. And by doing this we will, in turn, help to cement the UK and Ireland’s leading position as pioneers of open banking.”
In October last year, Tink strengthened its commitment to the UK and Irish markets by appointing US FinTech Stripe’s former head of EMEA banking, Rafael Plantier, as its new Country Manager for the UK and Ireland.
Plantier has come on board to grow Tink’s UK footprint and lead the team as its ramps up activity in the market.
Its investment in the UK comes at a time when a vibrant and attractive FinTech market could be threatened by potential disruption form the UK’s imminent European exit, but Kjellén said it was undeterred.
“Tink is confident that operations will continue uninterrupted in the face of Brexit,” he said.