Launched way back in February on iOS, London-based fintech startup Curve has finally made an appearance in the Android market.
The mobile wallet lets you sync your debit and credit cards into a single app and to the accompanying Curve card powered by MasterCard. Users can then simply select which card they want the card to act as a conduit for any payments made offline or online, making it necessary to carry only a single physical card with them.
Other app features include the ability to see and tag all transactions in one place in real-time (regardless of which card they originate from), search through and export spend history across all of your cards, lock or unlock your Curve card at any time, and access significantly lower foreign exchange when spending abroad.
Most notable, however, is that, along with finally becoming available on Android, Curve has quietly put in place a feature it’s calling ‘Labs’ that will see the app begin to connect to other fintech or digital financial services — thus providing the makings of the fintech convergence strategy Curve’s roadmap has always been built on.
The company was founded on the premise that whenever there’s disruption — in this case, following technological and regulatory changes, a plethora of new fintech companies unbundling various parts of the banking sector — this inevitably leads to fragmentation. What then eventually follows is convergence.
Curve Labs will presumably see the app optionally connect to fintech services like TransferWise for sending money abroad (TranferWise founder Taavet Hinrikus is an investor in Curve, after all), Nutmeg for investing, or various card-linked cash-back or loyalty programs.
Meanwhile, the iOS app is getting an update next week, adding ‘Email Receipts’. The concept behind this update is that when you pay with Curve, you can receive a breakdown of your transaction to your email inbox, and can add a receipt image to that email from with the app, rendering it easier to get expenditure to your company’s finance person or your accountant/book keeper.
According to reports, Curve is also closing in on a Series A round of around $8 million. However, it remains in the pipeline for now.
