Cheddar expands offering with Open Banking acquisition

Bank account-enabled payments platform Cheddar has acquired Upside, an Open Banking-enabled marketing and cashback app, in a deal which marks its expansion into Open Banking.

Upside uses Open Banking to connect retail brands with consumers by offering personalised cashback.

Cheddar said that following the acquisition of Upside, the Open Banking integration will be run without third parties via Cheddar, and will be used to develop its payment platform.

Work has already begun to incorporate Open Banking into Cheddar’s offering and it expects the first services of this kind to be available to customers later in 2022.

Tariq Zaid, CEO and founder of Cheddar, said: “We are delighted to have acquired Upside’s innovative technology and to begin implementing Open Banking as part of Cheddar’s services. We believe this will add substantial value for our customers whilst also complementing our other services and operations.

“We look forward to exploring these new Open Banking opportunities to enhance our customer offering.”

Cheddar’s payments platform is free for consumers to use and has been developed “to solve inefficiencies in the payment chain”, by making it more “accessible” for individuals and small businesses to send and manage money.

The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.