Curve, the financial super app which empowers customers to understand and master their finances by combining all debit, credit and loyalty cards into one, has today announced a partnership agreement with wearable payments​​ enablement leader Fidesmo.

Curve is on a mission to give customers financial freedom by simplifying and unifying how they spend, send, see and save money and this partnership furthers that ambition. By partnering with Fidesmo, Curve is enabling users in the UK and European Economic Area to add multiple payment cards to Fidesmo partner devices, such as rings, bracelets, keyrings, watches and pens, and pay at contactless terminals.

Swedish technology company Fidesmo gives users a more scalable and seamless experience by using Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology to enable convenient contactless services. The secure payments are based on tokenisation, which ensures security to mobile point-of-sale transactions.

Demand for wearable payment devices has grown rapidly in recent years, underpinned by contactless payment methods becoming the norm for many and the growing availability of wearable technology. Analyst house CCS Insight recently estimated that manufacturers globally shipped a total of 232 million smart wearable devices in 2021, up by a fifth (20%) compared to the previous year. Furthermore, one in four Europeans plans to pay for items with wearable devices in the future. Recently, Curve has seen double-digit growth in watch tokenisation as payment facilities increasingly become an integral part of this wearable.

Leveraging Curve’s existing footprint across the EEA and the ability to link all your bank cards in one place, this collaboration will tap into this growing interest in wearable payment devices. In turn, it will give over 400 million consumers across Europe access to new contactless payment technologies. Fidesmo’s technology can help any wearables manufacturer enable payment as a part of their consumer offering, empowering the end user with a more scalable and seamless payment experience.

The partnership is part of Curve’s continued investment in its product as it continues to support approximately 4 million customers worldwide. The partnership also reflects Curve’s continued mission to simplify and unify the way people manage their finances, as the company looks to build on the successful product launches of CurveX and Curve Flex and its recent entry into the US.

Responding to the partnership agreement, Curve Chief Technology Officer Eric Molitor, said: “Fidesmo is an essential partner meeting the exponential growth and demand of customers to pay by watch, ring and new wearable categories. As this market grows, Curve will continue working closely with Fidesmo to bring in new manufacturers and provide customers with unique experiences.”

Mattias Eld, CEO and co-founder of Fidesmo, added: “We are very happy about our continued growth potential for Fidesmo Pay with the addition of Curve. It's an important milestone for the company to be able to work with such an extensive and pivotal issuer. With Curve, Fidesmo and our partners can continue the work of broadening and building the number of contactless payment solutions to the market.”