Monavate: The brand that carried a payments infrastructure business from rebrand to acquisition.
Narrative system
Website
Money20/20 campaigns
Ongoing brand, creative and design
Acquisition communications
In 2024 we rebranded Monavate, a Cambridge-based card issuing and payments infrastructure business, and launched it at Money20/20 Europe. For the two years that followed we were its brand, creative and design partner, embedded with the executive team, through the Turning Payments Into Power narrative, three Money20/20 events and the announcement and completion of its acquisition by Exodus Movement, Inc., listed on the NYSE American.
First, a brand that did not match the business. Then, a business that outgrew the rebrand job.
In 2024 Monavate was a rising payments infrastructure business stuck in a sea of sameness. The brand did not reflect the ambition or the technology, and in a category where every issuer-processor sounds identical, that anonymity cost it deals and talent.
The rebrand solved that. But over the next two years the audiences multiplied. A business issuing millions of cards across dozens of countries, moving into the convergence of traditional payments and Web3, and heading towards a strategic transaction has to be credible to clients, card schemes, regulators, partners and, eventually, an acquirer and public-market investors. The trust gap moved from being noticed to being taken seriously at scale, and our role was to hold that line consistently for two years.
THE STRATEGIC MOVE: From rebel with a cause to the foundation beneath innovation.
- The 2024 rebrand gave Monavate a challenger position: a rebel with a cause in a conservative category, launched with a teaser that glitched its own online presence and a bold identity revealed at Money20/20 Europe. That energy got the business noticed.
- The move that followed was to keep the energy and change the substance. Monavate became the foundation beneath innovation: Turning Payments Into Power, with one platform for issuing, moving and settling money, and a single promise, we build the foundation, you build the future. The voice stayed irreverent where others are rigid, but the positioning shifted from challenger to infrastructure, because infrastructure is what clients, schemes and an acquirer buy. The trade-off was deliberate. Some of the launch swagger was given up for authority that holds under scrutiny.
A rebrand gets you noticed. A brand system, held for two years, gets you taken seriously by clients, schemes, regulators and, in the end, an acquirer.
One rebrand, then two years of brand and creative leadership.
Chapter one: The 2024 rebrand
Brand positioning, a new visual identity and messaging, a teaser campaign that deliberately glitched Monavate's online presence, a launch film and a full reveal at Money20/20 Europe, followed by the website and collateral. Our team became the brand's first ambassadors
Chapter two: 2024 to 2026, the embedded partnership
We stayed as Monavate's brand, creative and design partner, working inside the executive team. That covered the narrative system and brand book behind Turning Payments Into Power, the evolution of the website, product and sales collateral for the platform, content and executive communication, and Monavate's presence at Money20/20 Europe in 2025 and 2026. When the Exodus transaction was announced and then completed, we supported the brand through the transition: announcement assets, client communications and a consistent Monavate brand inside a listed group.
Brand is economic infrastructure.
This is the proof.
A brand built for authority compounds. It shortened Monavate's sales cycles in 2024, drew talent and partners, and two years later stood up to the scrutiny of an acquirer. The rebrand was the start. The value came from holding the system, consistently, for two years.
It also shows how we prefer to work: embedded with the executive team of an ambitious business over years, not handed a brief and thanked at launch.
The PROOF
Noticed, then credible.
A challenger rebrand that lifted traffic, enquiries and following within a month, and a narrative that carried the business for two years after.
A brand that held under scrutiny.
Consistent from Money20/20 stage to scheme, regulator and acquirer due diligence.
Acquired by a listed group.
Monavate became part of Exodus Movement, Inc. (NYSE American: EXOD) on 1 May 2026, alongside its sister company Baanx.
Scale at the point of acquisition.
6.3 million cards issued and US$13.5 billion in payments processed, as published by Monavate.
A two-year partnership, not a project.
Brand, creative and design led from inside the executive team through the whole journey.
"We had worked with other agencies, even some big names in London, but none truly captured our unique spirit. DoubleShift was different. They dove deep into our culture, understanding who we are at our core. They didn't just design a new brand; they unleashed our inner rebel.
Their strategic insight and creative execution transformed us from a traditional payments processor to a payments powerhouse. The results? Increased client engagement, a flood of top talent, and a renewed energy throughout our organisation.
If you're looking for an agency that truly understands your brand and can elevate it to new heights, look no further than DoubleShift. They are, simply put, the best."
We build beautiful brands that move people.
If you are building something ambitious in a high-trust, high-complexity industry, we should talk. Not a pitch. A conversation about your business and how strategic creative leadership can help you grow.
Brand & Creative Leadership for High-Trust, High-Complexity Industries.
