Helsinki, March 2023: Card issuing and processing pioneer Enfuce has teamed up with UK neobanking start-up Science Card to launch a ground-breaking payments card, which forms part of a new infrastructure for funding scientific research, designed to create the future earlier rather than later. Science Card’s customers drive real change with their normal payments activity, as a portion of Science Card’s revenues are fed back into scientific R&D. Their customers also have access to Science Card’s funding infrastructure, and through the payments app can explore, and with a single click, independently fund vital scientific research at leading British universities. This unique card proposition is made possible by Enfuce’s award-winning cloud-powered Card as a Service platform.
Enfuce will power the Mastercard-branded card, which will be made available through Science Card’s app with Enfuce’s easily integrated API, allowing customers to top up their account with money and use it as their primary spending account. Backed by Enfuce’s wide range of value-added integrated services, including real-time transaction monitoring, spending controls and customisable modules, Science Card also offers a dynamic way for customers to boost scientific research funding with its ‘one-click’ research crowdfunding model.
Launched in the UK by scientist and deep tech entrepreneur Daniel Baeriswyl, Science Card is committed to using the banking ecosystem to drive sustainability, combat climate change, create better healthcare, improve access to education, and super-charge scientific projects that will improve society. Powered by Enfuce, Science Card enables contributions of any size to be made to scientific research projects in seconds through its app, ensuring a faster flow of much-needed funding to accelerate innovative R&D in the UK, removing layers of philanthropic complexity, and shortening the time from funding to the start of research from approximately 12 months to 5 minutes.
Science Card will also direct 10% of its profits to fund scientific R&D projects at leading UK universities, and is going a step further by giving users the option to round up purchase amounts or make one-off purchases and send them as micro-grants to the project of their choice. Within the Science Card app, users can view and choose which university and which scientific project to send micro-grants to, and also see Science Card’s total funding for all projects.
By making micro-grants through Science Card, users can fund projects and interests close to their hearts, become research patrons, make a direct contribution to future innovation, and as importantly, own a part of each project’s intellectual property.
“When I was a PhD student, I observed that important research projects were often underfunded, a common problem in academia that leads to many scientists abandoning vital research due to lack of funding. Science Card was born specifically to bring research closer to the source of money. Our mission is to combine a payment account with the ability to fund scientific research, and that creates a very powerful way to increase the pace of innovation by more efficiently diverting money to research projects, at speed.
Science Card’s customers generate an immediate and positive impact by funding research into better healthcare, cleaner energy, education and other projects that benefit society. In return for our customers making micro-grants, they gain part of the intellectual property of that research, and stand to directly benefit from creating change for society as a whole.
Enfuce is the perfect partner for Science Card. They provided the whole package of services, technology and expertise that we were looking for. Enfuce has unrivalled card processing infrastructure, an API that can be easily integrated into our existing services, and fantastic service from their incredibly knowledgeable team. Their deep commitment to sustainability was also a massive draw for us. Building a completely new B2C and B2B proposition like Science Card could only have been achieved with Enfuce and global tech innovator Mastercard. The support of these two hugely important and influential partners, who like us believe in using technology as a force for good, is invaluable and will drive our future growth together.”
Led by co-founders and co-CEOs Monika Liikamaa and Denise Johansson, Enfuce offers an agile alternative to existing issuer processing platforms, with the ability to quickly add modules and services as and when needed. The first in the world to fully move card issuing to the cloud, and with its turnkey Card as a Service (CaaS) model, packaged BIN sponsoring, and all regulatory compliance taken care of, Enfuce is a one-stop shop for organisations that want to issue cards to their user bases.
“Science Card’s unique proposition has the potential to make profound transformational changes in society. Enfuce’s core commitments to sustainability and creating positive change in society are well aligned with Science Card’s vision to make the world a better place. To launch and run a brand new B2C card use case like this requires flexible and customisable issuing and processing functionality, vast expertise of meeting compliance and regulatory challenges, and a stable platform that’s designed for future-proof growth. Enfuce’s exceptional capabilities in all these areas make us the go-to partner for game-changing payment solutions, and we can’t wait to see how our partnership with Science Card will create influential scientific innovation for the good of society.”
“Science Card isn’t like any other card programme – nothing like this has existed before in the market. We immediately recognised how Science Card had the ability to engage users with a compelling incentive to fund vital science projects that can make huge differences in all areas of society. Science Card is not just a payment account, it’s a whole new infrastructure for innovation funding, and Enfuce’s technology platform will underpin its growth. We’re delighted to be part of such a crucial initiative that will let people actively fund scientific progress and own a piece of the future.”
Science Card’s initial launch is in the UK, with an estimated 30,000 customers and the goal of funding at least one scientific R&D project worth at least £300,000 within the first year. There are plans to expand Science Card to the European Union and the US over the next few years through partnerships with leading universities in those markets. Ultimately, Science Card estimates that it will attract more than two million customers by 2028 and generate scientific funding worth upwards of £100 million per year.
The new card issuance partnership with Science Card is the latest milestone in Enfuce’s successful growth journey, following its €45 million in Series C funding that was secured from Vitruvian Partners, a global investment firm which supports ambitious, high-growth companies. With a fast-growing roster of partnerships secured over the past 12 months, alongside several prestigious award wins, Enfuce is swiftly becoming the go-to partner for card issuance and embedded payments services in the B2B and B2C spaces.
Being the first financial service provider in the world to be PCI-DSS certified while running its service in the public cloud, Enfuce’s technology supports debit, credit, prepaid, gift, fleet and fuel card programmes in any form – plastic, digital and/or tokenised – for consumer, commercial and B2B applications, along with digital wallets.
Established in 2016 in Finland, and already the trusted number one issuer processor for more than 35 partners. Key applications for Enfuce’s services include expense management, neobanks and fuel retailers, as well as providing corporate and consumer payment programmes and advanced spending controls. To date, Enfuce has supported 16 million cardholders and processed more than €1 billion in transaction value annually.
Enfuce runs card issuing on the Way4 software platform.
Source: Enfuce
