Mastercard is to acquire Swedish subscription management fintech, Minna Technologies, for an undisclosed sum.
Minna creates technology that assists consumers in managing their subscriptions directly within banking applications and websites.
The firm claims to be the only B2B2C platform with an automated subscription management engine, bank-grade compliance, and the “widest global subscriptions and payments coverage” serving over 120 million users.
Gaurav Mittal, EVP and CEO of Mastercard’s Ethoca, explains the rationale behind the move, stating that as subscriptions continue to play a “big role in people’s lives”, businesses recognise the increasing value in “subscription-related services” for their ability to foster “long-term, deeper relationships with consumers”.
“However, there are times when that experience is not exactly as expected,” Mittal’s statement continues. “Consumers who want to modify, extend or cancel a subscription, occasionally struggle to find ways to do it easily.
“Additionally, card payment blocks, a solution often used when frustrated consumers call into their banks can impede the ability of businesses to reengage consumers.”
That’s why, according to Mittal, the paytech titan is purchasing Minna, to enhance its consumers’ subscription experiences by leveraging Minna’s “teams and technologies”, emphasising that its payment-scheme agnostic services will complement Mastercard’s “broader set of tools that help manage the merchant-consumer relationship and minimise any disruption in their experience”.
This move, which is still pending regulatory review, comes hot on the heels of Mastercard’s $2.65 billion September deal for US-based AI-powered threat intelligence platform Recorded Future.
