Mintoak Acquires UAE-Based ICC Loyalty To Expand Fintech Stack For Banks

Fintech startup Mintoak has completed the acquisition of Dubai-based ICC Loyalty, expanding its offerings beyond merchant payments to include customer engagement and data monetisation. Raman Khanduja, Mintoak's founder and CEO, revealed that the acquisition was chiefly funded by the company's own resources, with a modest debt contribution.

ICC Loyalty will function as a wholly-owned subsidiary under Mintoak's umbrella, retaining its team. Mintoak assessed around 50 potential acquisition targets before making this choice, citing ICC's profitability, customer base, and its complementary role in the payments ecosystem. Established in 2017, Mintoak provides a platform for banks to manage businesses, facilitate payments, and cross-sell financial products to SME merchants, serving over 50 banks in 20 countries and processing more than $93 billion in transactions annually.

ICC Loyalty, meanwhile, offers loyalty and rewards infrastructure to over 30 banks in 10 countries, benefiting more than 11 million customers through personalized rewards, lifecycle marketing, and engagement programs. The combined entity aims to sell Mintoak's merchant engagement platform to ICC's clients and leverage ICC's rewards stack for its banking partners.

This move will also bolster Mintoak's international expansion, currently accounting for half of its revenue. Khanduja emphasized that banks have historically monetized payments through loans and financial products, but transaction data offers another lucrative avenue. By analyzing payment data, Mintoak can assist banks in cross-selling financial products and services, while ICC's consumer data from loyalty programs will augment Mintoak's analytics capabilities, enabling AI-driven solutions such as personalized offers, merchant benchmarking, and targeted marketing campaigns.

This acquisition underscores the fintech industry's growing emphasis on monetizing payments data, as evidenced by PhonePe's recent launch of PulsePro, a transaction intelligence platform for enterprises.