Salt Edge invests in Sientia for loyalty data push

Salt Edge has invested in Sientia, linking an open banking platform with a payment-linked advertising business.

The deal focuses on using customer-consented banking data for loyalty programmes, rewards and marketing insights. Sientia uses transaction and balance data, alongside enriched financial insights, to help advertisers, publishers and financial institutions tailor offers and engagement programmes.

Sientia has built its business around turning open banking data into customer insight for brands and publishers. Its clients include Adidas, Ocado, Lyle & Scott, Hawksmoor, Honest Burger and Poolhouse, as well as publisher group Capillary Technologies.

Salt Edge provides infrastructure that lets businesses connect securely to financial data from thousands of institutions across Europe and the UK. It says it has integrations with more than 5,000 financial institutions in more than 50 countries and describes its service as a single gateway for third parties to access bank channels while helping banks meet open banking and PSD2 requirements.

Beyond payments

The transaction signals a broader push in open banking beyond account aggregation and payments. Both companies are targeting customer engagement products that use permissioned financial data to link spending behaviour with rewards and marketing activity.

That approach could give brands and publishers another way to reach consumers as parts of digital advertising come under pressure to reduce reliance on cookies and other long-established tracking methods. The model is based on customer consent and is designed to connect real-world spending data with personalised offers.

For Sientia, the investment also provides access to a larger banking connectivity partner as it seeks to expand into new markets. Salt Edge, which has operated in open banking and open finance for more than a decade, presented the investment as part of a broader effort to support businesses building services on top of financial data infrastructure.

Sina Saidinayer explained why Sientia chose Salt Edge as its investor and technology partner.

"We didn't want a partner who just gave us pipes into bank data. We wanted one who understood what you can build on top of it. Salt Edge's expertise, its global reach into over 5,000 banks, and how genuinely partner-friendly they've been from day one made this an easy choice. This isn't just capital; it's validation that a loyalty-native layer on open banking data is the next frontier for advertisers, publishers and financial brands alike," said Sina Saidinayer, Co-founder, Sientia.

Data use

At the centre of the partnership is the use of transaction and balance data to generate insight into customer behaviour. The companies say that can help businesses create more targeted campaigns while giving consumers offers and rewards that better reflect their spending patterns.

The arrangement also reflects an ongoing debate over how financial data should be used outside traditional banking services. Open banking rules have largely focused on access, security and consent, but commercial applications have widened as technology providers and consumer brands test new models built around personal finance data.

Salt Edge views Sientia's model as one example of how open banking data can be applied beyond established uses.

"Open banking has already transformed how financial data is accessed and used, but we're only beginning to see what's possible when that data is applied to create better customer experiences. Sientia is exploring a compelling new direction by combining customer-consented transaction insights with loyalty rewards and marketing applications. At Salt Edge, we see partnerships like this as key to unlocking new capabilities and creating value beyond the established foundations of open banking," said Ilia Dragan, Chief Product Officer, Salt Edge.

The investment underlines how open banking providers are looking for growth in adjacent consumer services as the market matures. It also highlights growing interest in using permission-based bank data to support advertising, loyalty and rewards without relying solely on card-network information or web tracking tools.

Sientia was founded by Sina Saidinayer, Sam Leslie-Miller and Kamran Haider and grew on a bootstrapped basis before this investment. Salt Edge believes the partnership can help businesses gain deeper insight into financial behaviour while leaving customers in control of how their data is shared and used.