“Can a fully licensed Nordic neobank monetize its proprietary payment infrastructure by becoming the BaaS backbone for international fintechs entering the Nordic market, while simultaneously growing its own consumer and SMB banking base?”
Founded in 2015 as a consumer mobile banking app in Denmark, Lunar grew on a Spotify-like subscription model to over 1 million users. After obtaining a full Danish banking license, it expanded to business banking and acquired payment gateway Paylike in 2022 to build a Nordic payments marketplace. The most significant strategic pivot came in 2023–2024 when Lunar productized its internally built payment infrastructure, opening it to third-party fintechs and banks (TrueLayer, Trustly, Wise) under the brand 'Lunar Banking Services', and then spun this out into a standalone BaaS entity called Moonrise in December 2024 — repositioning Lunar Group as both a consumer/business neobank and a Nordic BaaS infrastructure provider.