UK-based Icon Solutions, a payments tech firm, has reportedly received an equity investment from JPMorgan, the world’s sixth-largest bank in terms of total assets. The value of the investment has not been shared publicly.
Icon Solutions notably counts major institutions including BNP Paribas, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group as its customer base. The Fintech firm assists banks with re-engineering their payments infrastructure so that they can conduct real-time transactions.
Sara Castelhano, Emea head of payments, digital and solutions, JPMorgan Wholesale Payments, stated that the strategic investment was made to help Icon Solutions as it develops a “simplified, collaborative payments ecosystem, driving emerging payments rails and innovation.”
Icon Solutions’ management noted that the payments-focused firm will use the additional capital to invest in its technology stack and to further expand its business operations. Icon will also use the investment to enhance its Cloud-native, open-source payments platform IPF.
Tom Kelleher, Co-Founder and Commercial Director at Icon, noted that the payments sector has “woken up and realized that the money is in value-added services, not payments processing.”
Kelleher believes that the right approach to transforming technology stacks and platforms is to focus on lowering operational costs. He also mentioned that it’s important to build resilient systems that can support innovation so that companies can deliver more value to their customers.
Kelleher further noted:
“The investment [from] JPMorgan enables Icon to accelerate our plans and be perfectly positioned to help banks leverage this opportunity to drive new revenues and further develop existing business lines.”
As covered earlier this month, JPMorgan had partnered with Fintech Affinity Capital to offer financial assets based around loyalty points trading.
As reported in September 2020, JPMorgan backed Fintech FitBank will be expanding its payments services business into the US. As reported in August 2020, JPMorgan announced plans to launch a UK-based challenger bank in 2021.