• Mastercard has struck a partnership with a local startup called Scale, a fintech agency founded by two women of colour.
• Scale helps other companies deploy their products to market much faster.
• Mastercard will now have Scale aid its own fintech partners in reaching the market with their products more efficiently.

The latest in startups news sees South African startup Scale partnering with Mastercard in efforts to speed up the process for fintechs in Africa and the Middle East to get their products to market.

Scale is a local startup that focuses on payment orchestration – basically, it helps companies accept or decline when a transaction is made – and was founded by two women of colour in Miranda Perumal and Barbara Woollams. Perumal now acts as CEO.

It brands itself as a “fintech agency” that handles the entry, deployment and growth of companies that come under its umbrella. Scale essentially makes bringing a business to market easier. It provides you a project management team, helps businesses with their strategy, find partners, analyse the market and even find funding.

It even offers digital content marketing and social media advertising.

Mastercard says that the collaboration will reduce technical and commercial barriers to entry that fintech companies, and companies involved in the digital finance value face when launching a payment programme to market. Scale will help these companies launch new products and services more efficiently.

“At Mastercard, we are committed to working with local ecosystem players to drive the growth of innovative payment solutions across the region with the aim of bridging the digital gap, enhancing financial inclusion and improving access to financial services. With its in-depth knowledge of the fintech landscape, Scale is our ideal partner in achieving these goals,” said Amnah Ajmal, executive vice president, Market Development, EEMEA, Mastercard.

Mastercard and Scale will support fintech companies and other ecosystem players in securing BIN sponsorships, building sustainable unit economics, designing and commercializing their card and other payment programs, productization, assessing profitability models for their programs and delivering world-class customer experience.

In a press release sent to Hypertext, Mastercard says that the collaboration will evolve into a technology proposition, enabling any tech company to acquire the Mastercard issuing capability through Scale.

“Fintech companies move at speed and require commercially viable collaborations with experienced companies that cater to a cost-sensitive market,” enthused Perumal.

“Through our exciting partnership with Mastercard, we are solving a major pain point and providing a single point of contact while absorbing the complexities of seeking a bank BIN sponsor, third-party processor and other payment solution providers. This combined ecosystem service allows fintech players to focus on their core business, and us to focus on ours – streamlining processes, enabling payments and supporting the program’s growth to earn revenues faster.”

Scale will now assist Mastercard’s fintech partners in growing their portfolios, driving revenues and achieving profitability by given these companies an understanding of consumer behaviours, market dynamics and competitors.

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