In the rapidly-evolving landscape of digital payments, a new battleground has emerged: the “wallet wars.” As consumers ditch cash for contactless, contenders such as Apple Pay and Google Pay are vying for dominance in the mobile payments industry. But also positioning itself for the market share is Curve.
Founded by Israeli serial entrepreneur Shachar Bialick, a former member of the IDF special forces, Curve is a fintech company that has developed a mobile wallet that consolidates multiple bank cards into a single smart card. Users can pay with their phones via the Curve app – as you would with Google or Apple Pay – and also manage their payments, access rewards, and simplify their financial transactions.
Shachar Bialick, founder of Curve
London-based Bialick first came up with the idea for Curve in 2006, but it wasn’t until 2018, that he launched the product. “We wanted to wait until the market was ready,” Bialick tells Jewish News.
The same year he pitched to Mastercard and was “laughed out of the room.” Bialick explains: “We first pitched the idea to them (Mastercard). What we were doing was big, it was ambitious but they didn’t think it was possible initially.”
Nearly a decade later, and Mastercard is a Curve strategic partner, along with Samsung, Garmin, PayPal, Swatch and many more. There are six million Curve customers across the UK, Europe and more recently, the US.
Earlier this month, Curve announced the appointment of Lord (Stanley) Fink as Chair of its Group Board. Dubbed the godfather of the UK hedge fund industry, Lord Fink is credited with building the Man Group up to its FTSE 100 public company status, the largest listed hedge fund company in the world. Already an investor in Curve, Lord Fink will continue to support the company through its next crucial stage of strategic scaling.
Lord Fink said: ““Working alongside Curve as an investor, I have had a ringside seat to the company’s unassailable and well-earned rise. Beginning as a card which combines all your cards into one, to the all-encompassing digital wallet it has evolved into, Curve offers a transformative financial management experience to its users.”
Curve consolidates multiple bank cards into a single smart card. Users can pay via the Curve app
The mobile payments landscape has changed dramatically, in part accelerated by the pandemic.
“There’s no doubt anymore; the digital wallet is and will continue to become the operating system for money,” says Bialick. “We want to empower consumers with innovative financial tools that simplify their lives through selection, pricing and convenience. My goal and curiosity were to answer the question; what would be the end game of the market? Unbundling and then convergence,” he explains.
Curve differentiates itself from the likes of Apple Pay and Google Pay by offering consumers with unique features, including a patented “Go Back in Time” capability for retroactively changing payment methods, and detailed spending insights.
Additionally, Curve Pay provides global usage without foreign transaction fees ‘“saving consumers hundreds of pounds a year.
“You can use Curve to stack your rewards from other cards, essentially enabling users to ‘double dip,’ (getting rewards or benefits from multiple credit or debit cards simultaneously when using Curve) explains Bialick, adding that 50 percent of people in the UK use mobile payment wallets. In the Nordic regions, it is closer to 70 percent.
According to UK Finance and Accenture, one third of UK adults were using mobile contactless payments at least once a month last year (34 percent) – the first time this has been calculated. The share of UK adults registered with a digital wallet also jumped to 42 percent last year (2023), up from 30 percent in 2022.
Curve also recently announced the appointment of Edoardo Volta as SVP, Partner Marketing & Business Development to help bolster the company’s ambitious growth plans. Volta has held senior business development and partnership roles at Mastercard, Visa, and American Express.
An alumni of the Tel Aviv University, last year Bialick was the guest speaker at a Tel Aviv University business breakfast where he spoke about building a business against the odds.
For Curve is not Bialick’s first rodeo. Prior to Curve, Bialick, who holds an MBA from INSEAD, had built and led several companies in healthcare, finance, e-commerce and mobile telecommunications.
He says serving in the Israeli military helped prepare him for the turbulent world of business and taught him that “obstacles are part of life. You have to jump around them.
“The military is a melting pot that gives you the right values and resilience to think strategically. Certain units challenge your beliefs in yourself and teach you about team work, mind over body, resilience and leadership – all these traits give you capacities that most people in the world don’t have.”
Bialick says this foundation proved invaluable when, in 2020, he received an unexpected call from a senior executive at Mastercard. “He told me that the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) had asked Mastercard to shut down Wirecard (payment processing company), jeopardising Curve’s operations. Everything we had worked for over five years hung in the balance. I knew we couldn’t afford to remain offline for long but needed to migrate accounts to Curve — an endeavour that typically required three months. We managed to do it over one weekend.
“Communication was the key to success here,” he noted, drawing parallels to military operations during wartime where “clarity and coordination are vital, and in times of war we must increase communications ten-fold.”
Back to the wallet wars. As competition heats up, Bialick acknowledges that recent regulatory developments will play a key role.
“After years of retaining a chokehold on the digital payments market, it was the crucial pressure from the European regulator which finally forced Apple to open up its NFC (Near Field Communication – a technology that allows users to make contactless payments, exchange digital content, and connect devices with a touch) to competing wallets. This shift is a significant victory for consumers. Make no mistake about it – this is a defiant win for EU consumers who will be gifted more choice as a result.”
Yet, Bialick expressed concerns regarding the implications for the UK market, indicating that while Apple may adapt its policies, it plans to impose fees on developers of alternative wallets, which could hinder meaningful competition in the UK.
“This whole saga at the European level should be a cautionary tale to the UK regulator, which so far has shown little intent to match the outcomes from the EU’s investigation. The decision for the Competition and Markets Authority and Payment Systems Regulator, essentially comes down to whether they wish to counter the dominance of Big Tech in the digital payments space and prevent British businesses and consumers from being at a disadvantage to their European counterparts, or instead to prioritise consumer choice and fintech innovation and keep up with the rest of the continent.”
Bialick remains optimistic about Curve’s role in shaping the future of finance and is poised to lead Curve into this new era of digital payments. “Our mission is to provide innovative financial tools that simplify lives. The question going forward will be; do you pay with Apple, Google or Curve?”
