Railsbank becomes Railsr: Here’s the rationale behind the rebrand

London-based Railsbank, a fintech company with an open banking API and platform that provides regulated and unregulated companies access to global banking, announced on Tuesday that it has renamed itself as Railsr.

The company also announced the launch of a new rewards programme, indicating that it is ready to design and implement the next step in the consumer financing journey.

Embedded finance experiences

Founded in 2016 by Clive Mitchell and Nigel Verdon, Railsr is an innovator in the global Banking-as-a-Platform (BaaP) sector. Its platform allows marketers, product managers, and developers to prototype, launch, and scale their financial product vision using its open finance platform, financial operations, regulatory licensing, and APIs.

The platform also provides fintechs with a range of wholesale banking services, including IBANs, receiving money, sending money, converting money, direct debit, issuing cards, and managing credit through APIs.

Railsr claims to be the first worldwide turnkey platform that goes beyond fintech to let any brand or organisation, such as sports, retail, travel, and ecommerce, employ integrated financial experiences as a strategic tool for customer interactions, relevance, and revenue generation.

Currently, the company has more than 250 business-to-business (B2B) customers and 5.5 million accounts, with current customers including Foris, Paceline, Plum, Wirex, and Wagestream. Strategic Partners include AWS, Salesforce, Visa, Mastercard, and Plaid.

Since its inception, Railsr has raised over $100M in funding and has the backing of leading investors, including Visa.

Delivering positive disruption

According to industry analyst Simon Torrence, the embedded finance system – embedded insurance, lending, and payments – will be worth $7.2T in market capitalisation by 2030, more than double the present value of the top 30 global banks and insurers.

Co-founder and CEO Nigel Verdon says, “In our fast-moving world of amazing customer experiences, the finance industry has failed to evolve. We’re ‘experience natives’ thinking differently to deliver positive disruption. As the world’s leading embedded finance experiences platform, running on Railsr helps brands put customers at the heart of their business by leveraging finance as a core engagement tool to deepen relationships, create relevance and generate revenue. We’ve changed our name to Railsr, and we’re making finance a phenomenal experience.”

“The world has reached an inflection point. A time of radical digital transformation. Running on Railsr helps our customers drive relationships, relevance and revenue with their customers. We’re here for every step of their embedded finance experiences journey from prototyping through to launching and, ultimately, scaling globally,” he adds.

Recent developments

Railsr partnered with the World Retail Congress to publish a report on the behaviours and purchasing patterns of four unique consumer categories that emerged post the lockdown: digital arrivals, subscribers, ethical customers, and thrill-seekers.

According to the survey, merchants need to be prepared to provide these segments with customer experiences. The report also indicated shifts in consumer views, as new or rarely searched terms accounted for 73 per cent of the increase in Google retail searches in the UK.

The company has also announced several strategic moves to support growth and build expertise in the retail and sports industry, including the appointment of former England rugby captain and current leadership mentor at England rugby union, Will Carling OBE, and former Formula 1 Board Advisor, Jon Hall.