Rising digital payments company Novatti Group (ASX: NOV) is set to end what has already been a hugely productive year on a high note having on Wednesday won the Best Fintech Payments Provider award at the 6th Annual FinTech Awards.

Novatti was deemed by judges to have the most innovative product that adds value to the payments experience with a noted focus on their card issuing division.

Licensed by Visa to issue prepaid cards in Australia and New Zealand, Novatti’s issuing division has been growing by offering bespoke payment solutions through its Digital Payments Accelerator. Further strengthening Novatti’s issuing division was their selection by Afterpay (ASX: APT) as their New Zealand partner in April 2021.

Driving innovation to the payments sector, the Payments Accelerator enables startups to bring their new fintech products to market quicker, allowing them to test in a controlled way before launch. This has become even more popular throughout the pandemic as more businesses were forced to transition their operations online while accepting payment digitally, such as through bespoke Visa cards.

Using these Novatti-issued Visa cards, customers are then able to make mobile payments via Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay or via standard ways of tapping or entering the numbers online.

Besides Afterpay, other fintechs that have utilised Novatti’s card issuing solutions during the year include LifePay, LITT and iGoDirect. Potentially their biggest game changer comes via Novatti’s partnership with Cryptospend, which enables users to make payments via cryptocurrency through Novatti-issued Visa cards.

“To win this award just one year after launching our issuing division validates the quality of our offering and could not have been achieved without the hard work of the whole Novatti team,” said Peter Cook, Novatti CEO,

“We have witnessed the rapid adoption of digital wallets and virtual payment cards and I am so proud of the team for delivering so many innovative solutions that facilitate the transition towards a cashless society.”

Novatti has developed various apps within the API-driven platform where, for example, Visa cards could be used to deliver welfare payments to people in urgent need of assistance. This also has benefits for Government agencies, who could track spending and use of welfare payments to ensure funds were being spent appropriately while not allowing cash withdrawals, use on gambling websites or at liquor stores.

Card issuing is just one division within Novatti’s full service line, which also includes acquiring, billing, processing, and a new business for banking services.

In recent months, the Company has launched its merchant acquiring division, and is just one of around 20 companies in Australia to hold an Acquiring License from Visa, enabling merchants to accept digital payments.

For the quarter ended 30 September 2021, Novatti reported $5.3 million in quarterly sales revenue, which represented a 49% increase on the previous year. Since then, the Company has announced the acquisition of ATX for $8.4m as part of their strategy to expand their digital payments ecosystem throughout Southeast Asia.