Cashback on every purchase for individual savings goals

• Monkee launches the Smart Money Card in cooperation with Visa and Banking as a Service provider Qenta from Austria.
• Receive cashback for your savings goals with every purchase – from more than 400 partners in Austria and Germany.
• With the Smart Money Card, users have full control over their household spending.

Our Portfolio Company Monkee, the personal finance “Save Now Buy Later” company from Austria, is now offering a payment card. With this card users can collect financial contributions for their savings goals in both stationary and online retail. This works not in the form of points or miles as usual, but in the form of cash. They have now enlisted the support of Visa, a leading global network for digital payments, and the banking as a service provider Qenta. In this way, the three founders Martin, Christian and Jean-Yves are expanding the savings opportunities for their users. The Smart Money Card is a Visa debit card that can be used to pay at more than 80 million merchants worldwide.

Cashback – newly interpreted

Monkee helps its users with a clever gamification approach to save money for the things that are important to them. Whether it’s a vacation, a new smartphone or a nest egg. With FutureBoost, the company has long offered its users the opportunity to receive money back for their savings goals when making online purchases from partner companies, thereby achieving their goals more quickly. You may know the new Visa debit card as Smart Money Card. It enables users to get a portion of the purchase amount for one’s goals back on the account in addition to online and stationary retail.

Monkee’s partners

In online retail, Monkee now has over 400 partners in the German and Austrian markets. This network includes companies such as REWE, Lidl, Booking.com, Babymarkt, Fressnapf and Thalia. Users receive at least 0.1% cash back on their savings goals every time they make a purchase with the Smart Money Card – and up to 20% if they shop with one of the many partners.

A household budget for even more overview of expenses

When the Smart Money Card is activated, it activates a new “household account” automatically. That helps users to keep track and control of the household budget and to separate everyday expenses from the normal fixed costs on the salary account. In the future, the household budget will be able to be broken down into additional expense categories, such as food, transportation, or dining. For each payment, users can determine which savings target the amount should come from. For example, a vacation can simply be saved and then booked directly via the card. The source of payment can therefore be flexibly adjusted at any time.

Save completely without sacrifice

Higher food and energy prices: For many people, saving is more important than ever. That’s why Monkee not only helps its users manage their savings. It also helps them save more in their everyday lives without sacrificing anything. Thus they achieve their goals faster.
“With the Smart Money Card, we are taking the next step in scaling our business model together with Visa and Qenta. Everyday purchases that people would make anyway pay towards their savings goals by reinterpreting cashback – naturally. In addition, we want to give local businesses the opportunity to be part of our cashback system alongside brick-and-mortar and online retailers,” says Martin Granig.

Strong partners for individual savings success

For more than 20 years, Qenta has been responsible for the development of products and services around payment services for the check out area and is now breaking new ground. Qenta was able to successfully prove how a motivated team from Austria can not only further develop existing solutions. It also bring numerous innovations to the market. Thanks to the existing expertise in the field of card payment, an Austria-homemade solution can be offered. “At every location that accepts Visa the end customer can now enjoy all the benefits with each of his purchases and reach his savings goals even faster!”, says Kerim Chouaibi, CEO of Qenta.

He adds, “We are excited to help Monkee customers on their journey to achieve their savings goals and gain more visibility into their finances through the Qenta BaaS platform. We have 20 years of experience in the payment industry. Thus we were able to create a BaaS platform that meets the highest standards of modularity, availability and simplicity. That also convinced Monkee.”

Collaboration with Visa

“Our collaboration with Monkee and Qenta is a great example of how we at Visa can leverage our expertise to drive customer-centric digitalization. Thanks to Visa’s global network, Monkee customers can pay with the Smart Money Card, easily, securely and conveniently. In combination with Monkee’s innovative approach, users achieve their own savings goals in the process,” emphasized Ute König-Stemmler, Head of Business Development Central Europe at Visa. “We are pleased to support Monkee as it continues to develop its business model, as Visa is especially devoted to promoting innovation in payments.”

Transact Payments Malta Limited issues the cards under a license granted by VISA Europe Limited. The Malta Financial Services Authority duly licenses and regulates Transact Payments Malta Limited as a financial institution under the Financial Institutions Act 1994. Registration number C 91879.

For more information and to order the Smart Money Card, go here: https://monkee.rocks/smart-money-card/

About Monkee

FinTech company Monkee shows how saving can work in the age of digitalization. Founders Martin, Christian and Jean-Yves found no digital and straightforward solutions to improve financial habits and achieve individual savings goals. The lack of an easy way to save money for their own and for their children’s future, led the three to become founders of a digital financial coach. The Austrian company’s app allows people to learn healthy savings habits and establish them in their everyday lives. They call this a “Save Now Buy Later concept”. Monkee aims to offer a more sustainable alternative to the increasingly criticized Buy Now Pay Later providers and consumer loans. For this approach, the company has already been awarded. They received the Austrian Retail Innovation Award and the Payment Pioneers Award from the P19 initiative.

Congratulations to our portfolio company

We at ESAC are more than happy and proud to be a part of this great success story!