9Spokes International Ltd (ASX:9SP) has further bolstered its partnership with payments giant Visa (NYSE:V) with a new open data platform for businesses and banks.
The ASX-listed data company, which is focused on creating digital solutions for organisations and financial institutions (FIs), has introduced 9Spokes Open to the Visa (NYSE:V) fold.
Essentially, 9Spokes Open provides a gateway to the “engine room” of the 9Spokes data platform, which powers three apps for small businesses — the Track, Connect and Explore arms.
With the Open platform now included, Visa can offer the full “9Spokes stack” to its client base.
More broadly, the expansion represents another development in Visa and 9Spoke’s multi-year, global strategic partnership, enabling greater support for small and medium businesses (SMBs) and FI clientele.
9Spokes Open is set to make its Visa debut this month.
Supporting the trend toward digital
Speaking to the move, 9Spokes CEO and co-founder Adrian Grant said incorporating 9Spokes Open with the Visa contract added an important dimension to the relationship.
“It means that Visa can offer not only our full business and bank apps; Track, Connect and Explore, but also our newly released 9Spokes Open proposition.
“Over the past 12 to 18 months, we have seen a marked expansion of interest in open APIs which opens an array of new use case possibilities — not just focused on financial services but enabling better insight into business performance.”
Visa Business Solutions’ global head of products, Gloria Colgan, said: “Small businesses around the world became much more digitally savvy out of necessity during COVID-19 and now, as the world emerges from the height of the pandemic, we are seeing the trend toward digital continue because of the value that can be realised longer-term.
“As more of our clients seek new digital products and services to tackle all manner of opportunities within the SMB sector, we are excited to expand on the set of digital solutions we can provide to our bank customers.”
Introducing: 9Spokes Open
Essentially, 9Spokes Open is an open application programming interface (API) platform that allows application programs to interact — with appropriate permissions — so that customer data can be pulled, standardised and shared securely.
First, the company’s cloud-based infrastructure connects to apps and data sources across accounting, banking, point of sale, inventory, marketing analytics and other points of interest.
From here, it can collect the data needed to power the 9Spokes Open platform — something FIs and SMBs can harness to create digital experiences for their customers.
Some of the key applications for Visa’s clients include:
Business lending: business customers can choose to connect their data to auto-populate product application forms and supply supporting financial information. Financial Institutions get instant access to key information, creating a seamless, lower touch customer experience that leads to better conversion rates;
Customer intelligence: financial institutions get multidimensional access to customer profiles, pulled from varied data sources; and
Risk management: always-on permissioned connection to customer data supports risk management.
9Spokes will continue to work with the Visa team to develop a full suite of business and finance apps and services — all of which are powered by 9Spokes Open data sets.