API-based transaction network Token has secured $15.7 million in Series A funding from major investors including Octopus Ventures, EQT Ventures and OP Financial Group as it bids to capitalise on opportunities from the forthcoming implementation of the PSD2 directive in Europe.
Co-founded by serial entrepreneur Steve Kirsch and former Citigroup CTO Yobie Benjamin, Token's platform is capable of integrating with a bank's core system APIs and internal policies and procedures to provide a shortcut to cryptographically executing PSD2-compliant digital transactions.
OP Financial, which joins the funding round alongside lead investors Octopus Venture and Stockholm's EQT Ventures, earlier this month became the second European bank to sign up with Token following Germany's Fidor Bank.
Token’s software can be used to issue and redeem payment and account information authorisations as smart tokens, which can be programmed with any number of terms and conditions in accordance with the instructions of the account holder. Using the Token network, sensitive card or account data never leaves the bank’s systems, masked or otherwise, reducing the bank’s security vulnerabilities.
Steve Kirsch, CEO and founder of Token, comments: “Securing the backing from such world-class investors allows us to grow and execute faster on our mission to reinvent the world’s payment systems by providing common, secure access to all banks and a modern, bank-centric payment ecosystem. Each firm shares our excitement about the future of open banking and fully appreciates the impact that programmable money will have on the future of digital transactions. ”
Token will be demonstrating its technology to payment professionals attending Europe's premier payments and transaction banking conference EBAday in Dublin, June 20-21.