Salt Edge, a global open banking and open finance platform with over 13 years of experience, has invested in Sientia, a payment-linked advertising platform that transforms open banking data into loyalty programmes, rewards, and marketing insights.

The investment reflects both companies’ shared vision of creating value-added services beyond established open banking use cases. In their joint efforts, Salt Edge and Sientia explore new ways businesses can use customer bank data to deliver more personalised, relevant and privacy-first customer experiences.

The opportunity behind the investment

Salt Edge provides the infrastructure that enables businesses to securely connect to and access financial data from over 2700 financial institutions in Europe and the UK. Sientia obtains real-time access to transactions and balances, along with enriched financial insights that can be applied to help advertisers, publishers, and financial institutions deliver personalised reward programmes and offers to boost customer engagement. The company already works with brands including Adidas, Ocado, Lyle & Scott, Hawksmoor, Honest Burger, Poolhouse and global publishers such as Capillary Technologies.

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.

Sina Saidinayer, Co-founder at Sientia

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.

Ilia Dragan, Chief Product Officer at Salt Edge

Supporting the future of consent-based customer engagement

For Salt Edge, this investment reinforces its commitment to supporting innovative businesses in unlocking new value from open banking. For Sientia, it provides access to a trusted technology partner with global reach, enabling the company to scale its solution into new markets.

Businesses gain deeper insights into customers’ financial behaviour, helping them create more targeted marketing, loyalty, and engagement campaigns. Customers remain in control of how their data is shared and used, while receiving more relevant offers and rewards in return.

This partnership highlights a broader opportunity in the Open Banking ecosystem: integrating open banking data with loyalty and rewards technology to connect real-world spending to targeted, permission-based marketing without relying solely on cookies or card-network data.

About Sientia

Sientia is a payment-linked advertising platform that transforms Open Banking data into strategic customer insight, helping advertisers and publishers reach banking app users with precision-targeted campaigns. Founded by Sina Saidinayer, Sam Leslie-Miller, and Kamran Haider, Sientia has grown on a bootstrapped basis to work with global brands including Adidas, Ocado, Lyle & Scott, Honest Burger, and Poolhouse. Learn more at sientia.co

About Salt Edge

Salt Edge is a financial API platform with PSD2 and open banking solutions for every business. The company has two main activities: enabling third parties to access bank channels through a unified gateway and developing the technology required for banks to comply with the directive’s requirements. ISO 27001 certified and AISP licensed under PSD2, the company employs the highest international security standards to ensure stable, reliable connections between financial institutions and their customers. The company is integrated with 5,000+ financial institutions in 50+ countries. Salt Edge has been named a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave™: Open Banking Intermediaries, 2023 Report.

For more information, visit www.saltedge.com