The company intends to expand to the EU soon after its launch in Brazil this summer
Instagram-hyped Lanistar, the London-based much-hyped fintech which was in a lot of news last year, has announced the regulator’s approval to operate as an Electronic Money Directive (EMD) agent of payments firm Modulr.
As a result, Lanistar’s customers will get digital accounts to send and receive payments. This is possible with the EMD agent status that lets the company distribute and redeem electronic money on behalf of Modulr.
Gurhan Kiziloz, CEO and co-founder, Lanistar, commented: We are extremely grateful and excited by the official confirmation that we are approved as an EMD agent and one step closer towards achieving greatness.
Besides this, the Mastercard-backed UK fintech also announced that it will launch its debit cards officially later this year. As of now, its product is in alpha testing and will shortly move to exclusive beta testing prior to the controlled rollout over the next six months.
The company intends to expand to the European Union (EU) soon after its launch in Brazil this summer. However, they need to get approval from the relevant regulators in those regions.
Currently, Lanistar has more than 100 employees across three office locations – London, North Macedonia and Athens. By the end of 2021, it intends to scale up to over 400 employees following its product launch. Notably, since the soft launch last year, the company achieved over 228,000 Instagram followers and is backed by 3,000 social media influencers.
Kiziloz added: We are laser focused and obsessed with delivering our product and scaling up our company through 2021 with clinical precision and look forward to slowly but surely welcoming customers all over the world.
Criticised to be a scam, the Lanistar operates with the vision to become a £10bn+ fintech. Of late, it has taken the step towards growth by hiring in several top names into its senior team including Bill Suglani, CFO, a former BP, KPMG and Open Banking executive, and Jeremy Baber, Director of Banking & Financial Services.
The polymorphic payment account lets customers stack cards into their account using the app which is available from the App Store and Google Play. The payment card is created for the way millennials ensures secure online transactions.
A few months back, Lanistar hit the headlines for the launch of the world’s first polymorphic payment card called Volt. Soon after the same, the fintech startup was criticised for having paid social media influencers to generate hype for a bank card ahead of launch. Also, it was believed to be a scam.