Salt Edge, an open banking and open finance platform that has operated globally for more than 13 years, has made an investment in Sientia, a payment-linked advertising firm that converts bank data into loyalty schemes, rewards and marketing intelligence.
The deal is rooted in a common ambition between the two firms to build value-added services that go beyond the well-trodden applications of open banking. Together, they are examining fresh ways for companies to harness customer bank data to serve up experiences that are more tailored, relevant and built around privacy.
Salt Edge supplies the underlying infrastructure that lets businesses securely link to financial data drawn from more than 2,700 financial institutions across Europe and the UK. Through this, Sientia gains live access to balances and transactions, alongside enriched financial insights, which advertisers, publishers and financial institutions can deploy to run personalised reward schemes and offers designed to lift customer engagement. Sientia’s client roster already features brands such as Adidas, Ocado, Lyle & Scott, Hawksmoor, Honest Burger and Poolhouse, as well as global publishers including Capillary Technologies.
The investment cements Salt Edge’s pledge to help innovative companies extract fresh value from open banking, while handing Sientia a trusted technology partner with international reach as it looks to push its offering into new territories.
Companies using the technology gain a richer picture of how their customers spend, allowing them to shape sharper marketing, loyalty and engagement campaigns. Consumers, meanwhile, keep control over how their information is shared and receive more relevant rewards and offers in exchange.
The tie-up also points to a wider opening across the open banking landscape — pairing bank data with loyalty and rewards technology to link real-world spending with permissioned, targeted marketing that does not depend purely on cookies or card-network data.
Sientia is a payment-linked advertising platform that turns open banking data into strategic customer insight, enabling advertisers and publishers to reach banking app users with precision-targeted campaigns.
Sientia co-founder Sina Saidinayer said, “We didn’t want a partner who just gave us pipes into bank data, but instead we wanted one who understood what you can build on top of it. Salt Edge’s expertise, its global reach into over 5,000 banks, and how genuinely partner-friendly they’ve been from day one made this an easy choice. This isn’t just capital; it’s validation that a loyalty-native layer on open banking data is the next frontier for advertisers, publishers, and financial brands alike.
Salt Edge chief product officer Ilia Dragan said, “Open banking has already transformed how financial data is being accessed and used, but we’re only beginning to see what’s possible when that data is applied to create better customer experiences. Sientia is exploring a compelling new direction by combining customer-consented transaction insights with loyalty rewards and marketing applications. At Salt Edge, we see partnerships like this as key to unlocking new capabilities and creating value beyond the established foundations of open banking.
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