Today in the Connected Economy: Peloton Partnership

Today, in the connected economy, UnitedHealthcare is expanding its collaboration with fitness platform Peloton as more consumers seek ways to combine digital and personal health.

Also, Target and TD Bank decide to continue their collaboration on the Target Red Card through 2030, and Japan’s Rakuten turns to Goldman Sachs as it prepares for its IPO.

UnitedHealthcare and Peloton expand partnership

UnitedHealthcare has expanded its partnership with fitness platform Peloton, part of a broader move to position itself as the hub for all things health-related, as a growing number of consumers seek a mix of in-person and digital channels for care and wellness.

The revised agreement gives up to 10 million commercial members of the country’s largest health insurer free access to a one-year subscription to the Peloton app — or a three-month waiver of a Peloton All-Access membership.

“Our initial offering with Peloton is proving effective in encouraging many of our members to become or remain active with the goal of supporting their mental, physical and emotional health,” said Dr. Rhonda Randall, UnitedHealthcare’s chief medical officer for commercial operations. “This expanded collaboration will help even more people maximize the value of their health benefits while pursuing their fitness goals.”

TD Bank, target credit card partnership to continue through 2030

Target’s RedCard credit card continues to be developed by the same team as the retailer has extended its 9-year partnership with TD Bank to 2030.

The contract extension means TD Bank will continue to serve as the exclusive issuer of Target co-branded and private-label consumer credit cards, the companies said.

“A decade of partnership has allowed our teams to innovate together and deliver a compelling card program for Target guests,” said Chris Fred, head of US credit cards and unsecured lending at TD Bank. “We are very pleased to continue our collaboration with Target, a leading retailer who shares our growth philosophy and strong customer focus.”

Japan’s Rakuten selects Goldman for potential IPO

Japan’s Rakuten Group has selected Goldman Sachs and Daiwa Securities to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) for its banking business.

Rakuten — whose businesses include e-commerce, messaging, grocery delivery, and a variety of FinTech services — is reportedly planning to list its banking operations on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at a valuation of about ¥300 billion to ¥400 billion.

A report from Bloomberg News notes that the offering is part of a move by Rakuten to expand its financial services as its e-commerce and mobile businesses lag behind.

London based Paysafe joins Spreedly affiliate program

London-based payments company Paysafe is joining Spreedly’s partnership program, which the company describes as an “inclusive ecosystem offering multiple payment services globally with over 120 available integrations from a single point of connection.”

The partnership initially includes the UK and mainland Europe, but the two companies plan to expand their collaboration into North America and Latin America.

“Spreedly’s partnership program has an exciting vision to provide businesses with the ability to easily test and add new payment services through its ecosystem, which in turn can support its all-important customer acquisition and retention efforts,” said Rob Gatto, Chief Revenue Officer of Paysafe.

Onfido debuts facial biometric technology that verifies identity in seconds

Digital identity verification and authentication provider Onfido has unveiled a solution for its new Real Identity Platform to enable seamless, secure and comprehensive customer verification.

Motion, a next-generation biometric liveness solution, is iBeta Level 2 certified and enables organizations to automate customer onboarding, assess more people faster, while reducing the risk of fraud.

“In today’s fast-paced digital world, delivering the best user experience is everything. Consumers demand that they can access products and services in seconds while knowing they are safe,” said Alex Valle, Onfido’s Chief Product Officer. “Motion helps with this with a biometric liveness solution that offers easy, fair and secure access to online services from banking and gaming to crypto, rental cars and scooters.”

Fortis, Visual Matrix partner, offers hotels more payment options

Payments and commerce technology provider Fortis and hotel technology company Visual Matrix have partnered to help hoteliers offer more payment options to their guests.

The companies say that Fortis’ trading platform will be integrated as part of the partnership with hotel operating system Visual Matrix.

“The Fortis team understands the unique challenges of the hospitality industry and provides a platform that simplifies payments for guests and expands payment capabilities as new options emerge,” said Georgine Muntz, CEO of Visual Matrix. “This also helps streamline hotel operations processes like reconciliation through integration with our software.”

New PYMNTS study: How consumers are using digital banks

A PYMNTS survey of 2,124 US consumers shows that while two-thirds of consumers have used FinTechs for some aspect of banking services, only 9.3% cite them as their primary bank.