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15 Mar 2019 – Articles

Danske Bank partners with Mastercard in Fintech engagement program, Lighthouse

Danske Bank will be official banking partner in Denmark for the Nordic and Baltic Fintech initiative Lighthouse Development Program. The Lighthouse Program has been established as a joint effort between Mastercard and NFT Ventures.

The Lighthouse concept focuses on providing a platform based on collaboration between the largest banks in the Nordic, global financial companies like Mastercard, advisors, and the most promising Fintech companies in the Nordics and Baltics. Through the next months, these partners will work with the startups and explore how to guide and help them elevate their businesses.

We strongly believe that we can create more value for our customers through partnerships, which is a core pillar in our strategy, and we are looking forward to taking part in the Lighthouse program. We expect it to be a great opportunity to build partnerships with talented Fintech’s through Mastercard’s global network.

Morten Schwaner

Head of Card & Mobile Payments, Danske Bank

Mats Taraldsson, Head of Digital Development and Fintech Engagement from Mastercard, sees great potential for Fintechs and startups in the Nordics and he looks forward to working with Danske Bank on the Lighthouse program.

“Danske Bank has already played a large role in the Danish Fintech ecosystem, and we are excited that Danske Bank will be official banking partner for Lighthouse in Denmark,” says Mats Taraldsson.

New approach to working with incumbent players

The Nordics has a number of clear forces. The region offers a very good test environment for Fintech’s with a highly digital and cashless society with very skilled people and high living standards furthermore Nordic Fintech ecosystem has a good and expanded digital infrastructure.

We believe that the Lighthouse program is a completely new approach to working with startups that are poised to scale and benefit from Mastercard’s global network. Danske Bank joining the Lighthouse program as our Danish banking partner reaffirms our ambition that Lighthouse should be the best place to build partnerships with not only Mastercard but also the leading banks we work with.

Mats Taraldsson

Head of Digital Development and Fintech Engagement, Mastercard

Alongside Mastercard, Swedish NFT Ventures, is the co-originator of the Lighthouse Development Program, and founding partner Johan Lundberg explains:

“We saw a void in the market for Fintechs that have found their initial product-market fit and are in a position to really grow by working with incumbent players and their large networks. Lighthouse is unique in that sense and serves as a platform for Fintechs to connect with incumbents. That is why building a strong network of banking partners is key and Danske Bank has done a tremendous job of being active in Danish Fintech and will make a great addition to the Lighthouse program.”

The spring edition of the Lighthouse program begins this week with 15 attending Fintechs from three countries and one of the first workshops will be held in Copenhagen. The five Danish Fintechs attending the spring program are ERNIT, Spiir, Hufsy, GoAppified, and Zliide.

The conclusion of the program is the announcement of the Lighthouse winner and the winner will be announced at Money20/20 in Amsterdam in June.