Visa invests in Australian API platform Basiq

Ellie Duncan
24 Nov 2021

Australian API platform Basiq has received strategic investment from Visa as it eyes the “next phase of growth” and has made two additions to its board.

Basiq announced that Cietan Kitney, head of strategy, Asia Pacific at Visa has joined the board, while Touch Ventures has appointed Kareem Al-Bassam to its board.

They join existing investors Salesforce Ventures, Reinventure, NAB Ventures, Touch Ventures and Plaid.

The API platform is already used by more than 150 Australian fintechs, but Basiq said that the investment from Visa will help it to meet growing API demand as the Consumer Data Right (CDR) and Open Banking “plays out” in the Australian market.

The terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Julian Potter, group country manager, Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific at Visa, said: “We’re excited to partner with Basiq on open data, an area where Visa sees great potential to drive innovation in financial services. Visa is known for money movement, but moving digital money is fundamentally about moving data.

“We’re extending our network capabilities and expertise into data movement, and our investment in Basiq is a great example of how we’re supporting the rise of the open data economy in Australia.”

Through the partnership, Visa and Basiq will work jointly on new products and services that aim to help fintechs and financial institutions tackle customer pain points.

Damir Ćuća, CEO and founder of Basiq, added: “As the world’s leader in digital payments, Visa has the trust, scale and network capabilities to fast-track Open Banking adoption and drive fintech innovation domestically whilst also providing a global perspective from the onset.

“By partnering with Visa it will help accelerate our mission of providing the building blocks of financial services to businesses of all sizes.”