Sunrise and Yapeal to partner up

The Yapeal financial services app went live online this Monday. The first and so far only fintech start-up to receive a license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is therefore celebrating a Swiss first: Yapeal services are fully digital without the involvement of any third-party bank. The Yapeal offering includes a Swiss bank account with personalized IBAN, Switzerland’s first Visa debit card and cell phone payments via the Mobile Pay service.

Sunrise entered into a partnership with Yapeal for the development of this app. As Switzerland’s second-largest telecommunications company, which is based in Opfikon, announced in a press release, the app is aimed at a target group of people up to the age of 30. They can test it out on a free trial basis for a period of six months. Moreover, the two companies are also exploring the possibility of developing new business models together.

According to Sunrise CEO André Krause, Sunrise and Yapeal “together represent reliable, digital, real-time mobile payment and financial services. The joint promotional campaign for Digital Natives (young people up to age 30) is the first step”. In future, the two companies are aiming to provide “innovation for digital financial services”.

Thomas Hilgendorff, CEO and co-founder of Yapeal, described the partners’ joint launch campaign as “an important first step”. He adds: “Our mid and long-term objective together with Sunrise is to create new products that make handling money in the digital world even easier by integrating our services”. Hilgendorff is of the view that collaborating with strong partners such as Sunrise and Visa is a huge vote of confidence “in the best fintech team”.