Aussie fintechs come together as payments provider Cuscal buys data services platform Basiq

Based in Sydney, Cuscal has been an independent provider of payments, banking and regulated data systems for more than 50 years, and services clients like AMP (ASX: AMP), Australia Post and Square.

The deal involves Cuscal taking a controlling interest in Braavos Corporation - the parent company of data and open banking API platform Basiq - subject to ‘customary conditions’.

According to Cuscal, the move represents a ‘significant and strategic’ investment in the future state of the open data economy.

Based in Manly, Sydney and founded by CEO Damir Cuca in 2016, Basiq operates a platform that enables businesses to build financial solutions and facilitates the relationships between fintechs and consumers by giving them access to consented financial data and executing smart data-driven payments.

According to Cuca, the acquisition would be positive news for startups given the recent investment downturn by facilitating a pathway to develop strong payment capabilities.

“To provide a complete platform, it was inevitable that Basiq would need to enhance its payment services,” Cuca said.

“Cuscal is behind most of the innovative payment services in Australia and was the first to launch PayTo capability to the market, making it possible to use the new payment services that provide real-time account-to-account payments.”

According to Basiq, the Department of Treasury’s development of CDR - a secure online system that enables customers to get value from data that is collected about them via consent with third parties - opens up opportunities to use more reliable means to access data via open banking.

This in turn has allowed Basiq to grow and pursue its mission to provide fintechs and institutions with the services they need to offer more value to end consumers.

“As the CDR market matures, the range of solutions and financial applications being deployed has significantly shifted beyond simple data usage to include driving payments using intelligent data,” Basiq said.

By joining Cuscal, Basiq hopes to create a one-stop-shop for fintechs to give them the tools they need to accelerate the development of their own financial products.

“The benefit for Cuscal is also clear, supporting many credit unions, mutuals, and banks enabling Cuscal to provide its clients with the data services required to adopt open banking capability that will help them to better understand their customers and provide more engaging and relevant services,” Basiq said.

Cuscal managing director Craig Kennedy said he was impressed with Basiq’s ability to execute and present complex services such as data in a simple and developer-friendly way.

“Today marks an exciting new chapter for Cuscal, as we fast-track our maturity in enabling the Open Data economy and cement our position as a leading provider of Payments and Regulated Data services in Australia,” Kennedy said.

“Basiq has taken the SaaS playbook to heart, ensuring that their customers have the services they need to plug and play and help launch their apps to market with relative ease.

“With the acquisition of Basiq, we will be able to add the new data capabilities that will enable them to enhance the delivery of their current services.”

Post-acquisition, Basiq will continue to function independently but will be encouraged to use Cuscal’s capabilities to provide innovative solutions to the market.

“Basiq’s deep expertise in financial data aggregation and history of providing tools required to acquire and analyse financial data securely, are complementary to Cuscal’s payments experience and existing CDR solutions,” Cuscal said.

“It is envisaged that there will be no material change to the current structure of the team at Basiq or to Cuscal’s regulated data business.

“Basiq will continue to provide clients and the broader industry with access to consented financial data and all the tools required to uncover insights through Basiq’s platform while collaborating closely with Cuscal on enabling new high-value use cases, including those that are made possible by CDR-powered Action Initiations.”