Westpac invests in Akahu’s open banking services

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Westpac NZ’s venture capital arm has invested $900,000 into financial services firm Akahu.

The bank’s Red Bird Ventures led the investment round of $1.4 million round, alongside co-investors K1W1 and NZ7 Investments.

Red Bird’s latest investment adds to the $2m it invested in Akahu in 2020.

Established by Westpac in 2020, Red Bird is an early stage investor in strategically aligned growth companies, including Akahu and customer data platform n3 Hub.

Akahu enables open banking payments, which are commonly used in payroll services, payment apps, ecommerce and other payouts to securely transfer money from one bank account to another.

“Akahu has demonstrated its strength in innovation over the last few years and we believe it is well positioned to grow, as industry commitments and consumer data right legislation bring open banking to New Zealand,” Red Bird Ventures senior manager Mark Colley said.

The government has been planning to introduce consumer data rights legislation for several years.

Payments NZ, which supervises the country’s payments system, said the four main banks – ANZ, BNZ, ASB, and Westpac – would be ready by May next year to start implementing open banking, with Kiwibank due to join in 2026.

The legislation will give consumers more power to shop around for financial and other services. It will enable people to securely share detailed personal data with a service provider, such as a bank, mobile service provider and other utilities.

Colley said Akahu would support Westpac’s design and delivery of open banking solutions.

“We’re excited about the possibilities open banking will bring for New Zealand and we’ll continue to support innovation and collaboration in the ecosystem through our investments,” he said.

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