ISBC is a leading smart card and RFID tag manufacturer in Russia and has since 2015 sold more than 7 million wearables for different industries. Innovation and to constantly improve the products is in the company’s DNA. One of ISBC best selling products is their well-known RFID keyring, containing a secure element, making it possible for the keyring to be used for transport systems, as a social or loyalty card and to access restricted zones. The keyring already had a lot of functionality from the start, but to improve it even more, ISBC were searching for a partner who could enable them to add payment functionality, which would open the doors to the rapidly growing contactless payment market. When Nikita Kogemyakin, Managing Director at ISBC, met Fidesmo at Mobile World Congress 2019, he realized that he had found the perfect partner to enable ISBC to enter the contactless payment market – both in and outside of Russia.
“The Fidesmo Pay offering was exactly what we were looking for – a scalable, futureproof and easy to use solution, taking care of all the technical details, so that we could continue working on our business growth” – Nikita Kogemyakin, Managing director at ISBC.
Fidesmo is a Swedish tech company providing an all-in-one platform to integrate contactless services onto secure elements. The company offers the wearable payment service Fidesmo Pay, based on tokenization technology, making it possible to tokenize payment cards onto devices containing a secure element. Fidesmo has a large network of both payment schemes and banks, enabling the card bearers to connect their payment cards to a variety of devices and use it as means of payment. By partnering with Fidesmo, companies providing products can turn them into contactless payment accessories, by integrating a secure element. This solution was exactly what ISBC was looking for.
“Adding Fidesmo Pay functionality onto our keyrings enabled us to expand our business and enter a new market – the contactless payment market – as our products now can be used for contactless payments” – Nikita Kogemyakin, Managing director at ISBC.
ISBC and Fidesmo decided to enter a partnership, and for ISBC to get access to Fidesmo Pay, they swapped the chips inside of the keyrings from RFID to payment certified turnkey NFC chips. By doing this, ISBC did not only get access to the banks who already offer Fidesmo Pay, but also to the future banks with support for the payment service. Practically, this means that a new bank collaboration for Fidesmo will enable the bank’s customers to use the ISBC keyring as a means of payment – giving ISBC a new customer audience, independent of country.
“What makes Fidesmo Pay so scalable is that when we expand our offering, our customers automatically expand their offering and reach new audiences. It’s a win-win situation” – Mattias Eld, CEO at Fidesmo.
The partnership also enabled ISBC to integrate the Fidesmo API/SDK into their website, enabling customers to easily and securely connect the payment card to the keyring in the checkout when ordering the wearable. When the customer receives the keyring, they can easily activate the payment functionality on the keyring in the Fidesmo app. The keyrings still have the same look and feel, but now with a big increase in value, as they could now be used for contactless payments.
Fidesmo Pay was already present in several European countries when entering the ISBC partnership. The collaboration with ISBC made eight new Russian bank collaborations possible, thanks to ISBC’s already well established network in the Russian market.
By collaborating with Fidesmo, ISBC now has a target audience of several million customers in their home market, as well as customers who have a payment card from one of the other banks with support for Fidesmo Pay outside of Russia. Collaborating with Fidesmo opens new business areas, independent of borders. When Fidesmo grows – our customers grow.
