Blockchain-Based FinTech Optherium Labs Secures Pre-Series A Funding

Blockchain-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company Optherium Labs, which helps other companies add banking services, has received a pre-Series A investment from IRETH, which will help both companies achieve secure financial service delivery, according to a press release.

Optherium Labs operates under the Omnibek AG umbrella, the release stated.

“Together Omnibek and IRETH can offer a more complete and secure [neobanking] platform, thanks to their infrastructure as a service technology, enriched with advanced authentication and anti-fraud functionalities,” the companies said in the release.

Optherium Labs provides SaaS services for large financial institutions, enterprises and startups seeking to add digital banking services, according to the release. IRETH develops and delivers secure authentication and transactions.

Optherium Labs found in a survey it helped conduct that consumers have a growing interest in digital-only banking services, and they’re interested in building financial relationships with non-bank institutions, the release stated.

The average consumer has almost a dozen “significant financial relationships” with large companies, the survey found, per the release.

“[T]this partnership aims to provide companies with the security necessary to tap into an expanding client base,” the release stated.

Optherium Labs CEO Serge Beck told PYMNTS in July that the amount of companies that could potentially begin offering financial services was quite broad. He said “any company” could become a neobank and add new revenue streams.

Read more: Retailers Find New Revenue Streams in Banking-as-a-Service Models

Optherium has seen the biggest demand from telecoms as well as financial institutions trying harder to go digital. In addition, Beck said smaller firms, with user populations of around 20,000 individuals and above, could offer banking products to help build loyalty.

Beck said companies that want to become neobanks may have to have a bank “back them up” before launching, particularly in the U.S. He said that by the fourth quarter of this year, Optherium is planning to help roll out numerous new neobanks in the U.S.