Strategic deal signals a shift in banking from transaction processing to customer engagement as fintechs increasingly compete on loyalty, data and personalised experiences.
Global fintech platform Mintoak has acquired Dubai-headquartered ICC Loyalty, marking a significant strategic move that expands its presence across the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia while repositioning the company beyond payment processing into customer engagement, loyalty management and revenue monetisation.
The acquisition reflects a broader transformation taking place across the financial services industry, where banks are increasingly looking beyond payment infrastructure to deepen customer relationships, improve retention and create new sources of non-interest income.
Founded as a payments and merchant engagement platform for acquiring banks, Mintoak said the acquisition represents the next stage of its evolution into a comprehensive Payments and Engagement Operating System (OS) that enables financial institutions to integrate merchant services, consumer engagement, loyalty programmes and AI-driven customer intelligence within a single platform.
Dubai-based ICC Loyalty has built a strong presence in the banking sector by providing loyalty and rewards technology to more than 30 leading financial institutions across over 10 countries. Its platform currently supports more than 11 million banking customers, enabling banks to design personalised reward programmes, targeted promotional campaigns and customer lifecycle engagement initiatives aimed at increasing transaction frequency and strengthening customer loyalty.
Commenting on the acquisition, Raman Khanduja, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mintoak, described the transaction as a defining moment in the company’s long-term growth strategy.
“This acquisition represents a defining milestone for Mintoak. Payments have become the foundation of banking relationships. The next phase of growth will come from engagement. By bringing together merchant engagement, customer loyalty and data-driven intelligence, we are building a Payments and Engagement OS that enables banks to create greater value for merchants, consumers and banks,” he said.
ICC Loyalty Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Amit Narang said the combination would enable the company to leverage Mintoak’s artificial intelligence capabilities to deliver more advanced personalisation across its banking clients.
“Joining Mintoak allows us to integrate their advanced AI and platform capabilities into ICC’s ecosystem, delivering next-generation hyper-personalisation for both our existing and new clients. Together, we will help banks deliver more meaningful customer experiences while creating measurable commercial value,” Narang noted.
The combined business is expected to generate more than US$30 million in annual revenue, with profitability exceeding 30 per cent, providing a solid financial platform to support future innovation, product development and international expansion.
Beyond financial performance, the acquisition substantially broadens Mintoak’s market reach. The company now serves more than 50 banking institutions across over 20 countries, including HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and SBI Payments in India, Emirates Islamic and RAKBANK in the Middle East, as well as Absa Bank across Africa.
Collectively, the platform supports more than five million merchants, serves 11 million customers, and facilitates annual payment transactions exceeding US$93 billion.
Backed by investors including PayPal Ventures, British International Investment, HDFC Bank, Pravega Ventures and Z3Partners, Mintoak believes the acquisition strengthens its position within emerging markets where digital banking adoption continues to accelerate.
According to the company, the combined platform will enable banks to connect merchants, consumers and payment data more effectively, transforming routine payment transactions into opportunities for stronger customer relationships, increased engagement and sustainable recurring revenue.
The acquisition also reflects wider changes within the global payments industry. As digital payment infrastructure becomes increasingly standardised and widely accessible, competitive advantage is shifting away from transaction processing towards intelligent customer engagement, behavioural analytics and personalised digital experiences.
Mintoak believes this transition presents significant opportunities for banks seeking to maximise the commercial value of their existing payment ecosystems while improving customer retention in increasingly competitive financial markets.
BrandiQ Analysis
The Mintoak-ICC Loyalty acquisition illustrates a fundamental shift occurring within global financial services.
Payments are no longer the destination; they are becoming the entry point into broader customer relationships.
For years, fintech competition centred on enabling faster payments, lower transaction costs and seamless digital banking experiences. Those capabilities are rapidly becoming industry standards. As payment infrastructure matures, differentiation increasingly depends on what happens after the payment is completed.
This explains why customer engagement, loyalty programmes, rewards ecosystems and behavioural analytics are emerging as strategic assets rather than peripheral marketing tools.
Banks now recognise that every payment transaction generates valuable customer data. Properly analysed, that data can improve product recommendations, personalise financial services, increase customer lifetime value and generate new revenue opportunities beyond traditional banking products.
Artificial intelligence is accelerating this transition. AI enables financial institutions to analyse spending patterns, predict customer preferences, automate personalised offers and strengthen customer engagement at scale. In this environment, loyalty programmes are evolving from simple reward schemes into sophisticated data-driven customer relationship platforms.
The acquisition also reflects a broader evolution within fintech business models. Early fintech companies primarily disrupted banks through innovative payment technologies. Today’s leading fintech firms are increasingly partnering with banks, supplying the technology infrastructure that enables incumbent financial institutions to compete more effectively in the digital economy.
This partnership model is particularly significant for emerging markets, where banks continue to dominate financial services while seeking technology partners capable of accelerating digital transformation.
The BrandiQ Perspective
For African banks, the transaction offers an important strategic lesson. The future of digital banking will not be determined solely by who processes the largest number of transactions but by who builds the strongest customer relationships around those transactions.
Nigeria’s banking sector has made impressive progress in digital payments through fintech innovation and expanding financial inclusion. The next competitive frontier lies in converting payment data into customer intelligence, personalised experiences, loyalty ecosystems and AI-powered financial engagement.
Banks that continue viewing payments merely as operational services risk missing substantial opportunities for customer retention, cross-selling and long-term value creation. Conversely, institutions that combine payments with intelligent engagement platforms will be better positioned to increase customer lifetime value while defending market share against increasingly sophisticated fintech competitors.
BrandiQ Verdict
The acquisition of ICC Loyalty demonstrates that fintech competition is entering a more mature phase. Processing payments is no longer sufficient; the real commercial opportunity lies in transforming every transaction into deeper customer engagement and sustainable revenue growth. As payments become increasingly commoditised, loyalty, artificial intelligence and customer intelligence are emerging as the new competitive currencies of digital banking. For banks across Africa, the message is unmistakable: the future belongs not to those who simply move money, but to those who build enduring relationships around every payment.
