Fintech Loyaltek enters Portuguese market

The Belgian fintech company Loyaltek is looking for a country manager after announcing its decision to enter the Portuguese market.

The company has a product offer which aims to relaunch businesses and local communities with a prepaid card that can be charged by individuals, companies, public entities and even non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The aim is to help kick-start the Portuguese economy by directing money to specific segments in a method already seen with traditional luncheon cards that can only be used at specific cash terminals.
The ‘Unity Card’ was developed in partnership with the fintech Paynovate (a member of the Visa network) which are also partners in Loyaltek which sets the amount on the card.
In this case, there are food emergency and economic recovery cards, whose target audiences and acceptance networks differ.
The emergency food credit card is accepted by grocery and foodstuff merchants like supermarkets, and generally allows full or limited access to ATMs.
The former card aimed at economic recovery does not normally allow ATM access and is limited to local merchants who have suffered from this crisis.
Loyaltek CEO Robert Masse says that it is up to the financing entity to promote the card and decide customisation according to the region, country and entity.
“Normally, stores that are not impacted by the crisis (or less impacted) like supermarkets are not covered,” he clarifies.
The card that Loyaltek is unveiling in Portugal works exactly like the one that Loyaltek developed in Germany during the migration crisis, so that local authorities could manage the subsidies allocated to refugees.
“We distributed tens of thousands of cards to local authorities so that they can manage subsidies for Syrian refugees, allowing them to meet their basic needs through purchases from local merchants,” adds Robert Masse.
The issuer and manager of cards and payment terminals is also recruiting a general director for the Portuguese market to increase its presence at a national level.
“We are already present in 13 countries in Europe, and now in Portugal, where we already had some businesses. However, we intend to increase our activity and, in this sense, a more comprehensive and direct presence is justified.
“We think that this solution can help regions, cities and municipalities to face and recover from this crisis ,” Masse says.
Municipalities are the company’s focus in the short and long term, so to promote the cards to the municipalities, Loyaltek opted to make up to 5 cards free for each one so that a network can be created to which everyone, regardless of size, can get together.
“Our goal is to continue to work with these entities after this and with other products of ours like the Cartão Presente da Cidade,” says
the manager.