Salt Edge, an Open Banking and Open Finance platform with 13 years of experience in the sector, has invested in Sientia, a payment-linked advertising platform. The investment allows the two companies to jointly explore how Open Banking data can be applied beyond established use cases such as account information and payment initiation, extending it into loyalty, rewards, and marketing services.
Combining bank data access with loyalty technology
Salt Edge provides infrastructure that lets businesses securely connect to and access financial data from over 2,700 financial institutions across Europe and the UK. Through this connectivity, Sientia obtains real-time access to transaction and balance data, alongside enriched financial insights, which it applies to build personalised reward programmes and offers for advertisers, publishers, and financial institutions. Sientia already works with brands including Adidas, Ocado, Lyle & Scott, Hawksmoor, Honest Burger, and Poolhouse, as well as publishers such as Capillary Technologies.
Sina Saidinayer, Co-founder at Sientia, said the business sought a partner that understood how to build services on top of Open Banking connectivity, rather than one offering data access alone. The official pointed to Salt Edge's reach into more than 5,000 banks globally and described the investment as validation for combining loyalty services with Open Banking infrastructure for advertisers, publishers, and financial brands.
Ilia Dragan, Chief Product Officer at Salt Edge, said the investment reflects the company's approach of supporting businesses that develop new applications for Open Banking data, adding that combining customer-consented transaction insights with loyalty and marketing use cases represents a developing direction for the ecosystem.
Supporting consent-based customer engagement
For Salt Edge, the investment extends its strategy of backing businesses that build value-added services on top of its Open Banking infrastructure. For Sientia, it provides access to a technology partner with broader geographic coverage, supporting the company's plans to scale into additional markets.
The arrangement is designed to give businesses more detailed insight into customer financial behaviour, which can then inform targeted marketing, loyalty, and engagement campaigns. Customers retain control over how their transaction data is shared and used under Open Banking consent frameworks, while receiving offers and rewards based on that data.
The partnership points to a broader development within Open Banking: the integration of transaction data with loyalty and rewards technology, enabling permission-based marketing linked to actual spending rather than relying solely on cookies or card-network data. As Open Banking adoption continues across Europe and the UK, such applications may extend the scope of services built on regulated data access beyond payments and account aggregation.
