Santander’s fintech venture fund has emerged as one of the backers of mobile operating system start-up Cyanogen, as the Spanish bank aims to fend off competition in the payments arena from technology giants such as Google.

Santander Innoventures revealed on Wednesday it is participating in an $80 million investment round into Palo Alto-based Cyanogen, alongside investors including Twitter Ventures, Qualcomm, Telefónica Ventures, Smartfren Telecom and Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch's company owns Dow Jones, the parent company of Financial News.