How a fractured fintech ecosystem inspired Rapyd to create Fintech as a Service (FaaS).
By Arik Shtilman and the Rapyd Team
In what now feels like another lifetime, my co-founders and I learned firsthand just how difficult it can be to innovate in this space. Back in 2016 Rapyd started out as CashDash, a B2C ewallet product intended to address the challenges consumers were facing at the intersection of mobile adoption and payments. Our initial offering of support for a single country’s payment methods ended up requiring integrations with 7 different products and systems.
Different financial systems all have their own unique architecture, requiring custom development. Add to that the need to have a country-specific e-Money license and our efforts to meet the necessary regulatory requirements kept us buried in red tape — even as we worked to solve a wealth of technical challenges. And this was all for a single country – something that just wasn’t scalable.
While startups in other verticals have to deal with the classic build-vs-buy conundrum, we weren’t so fortunate. There was nothing to buy. Gaining any sort of market traction would require 12 to 18 months of engineering, connecting decades-old systems never intended to work together. While I’m incredibly proud of what we were able to accomplish, it quickly became clear that there was a greater opportunity staring us in the face.
We Created the AWS of Financial Services
There was clearly a need to create the infrastructure for global FinTech applications. But this would require following the precedent set by cloud-computing solutions like AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Web Services. So, we pivoted and set out to create a solution that would meet the needs of businesses like our own.
As we had discovered, delivering a good user experience in financial services is incredibly hard, as is developing great products from scratch. But if we can deliver this infrastructure “as a service” to financial services, then companies can go from spending years to a matter of months or even weeks to launch new products and services – and can greatly reduce the amount of money and complexity of becoming a financial services company.
Rapyd is the Fintech as a Service Platform I wish we’d had when we started CashDash
Building our own FaaS was the “aha” moment we needed as a company. By providing a link between today’s thriving, tech-forward business community and the legacy financial systems driving global commerce, we have unlocked a new playing field for financial innovators everywhere.
This approach is called Fintech as a Service, or FaaS. We’re confident that it will play a pivotal role in the next generation of disruptions that will reshape global markets.
What is Fintech as a Service?
With the right code, any company can be a financial services company. That’s the opportunity created by Fintech as a Service, which allows for any company to use fintech APIs to embed financial capabilities into their existing products and services.
Putting FaaS in Reach of Every Business
When it comes to FaaS, Rapyd delivers the “As a Service” component. By providing companies with FaaS, we allow anyone in any business to offer ewallets, issue cards, or embed a wealth of financial services into existing products – all without needing to spend months developing or millions building your fintech infrastructure.
FaaS creates unprecedented opportunities for global companies. Compliance requirements and regulations and payment systems vary greatly by region. For this reason, it is essential to partner with a FaaS provider with a truly global reach and the ability to support numerous local and alternative payment methods. Today every company must consider how to leverage financial services to better serve and retain customers and drive greater margin.
Fintech as a Service is the Future of Fintech
Leveraging Fintech as a Service lets you deepen relationships with customers and use data to promote products perfectly tailored to their needs. Now is the time to build a globally adaptive enterprise with limitless scale – and do so without having to build the infrastructure first.
Putting FaaS in Reach of Every Business
Combined, these three key pillars of FaaS — a unified tech stack, simplified global payments, and using a large local payments network — let businesses like yours focus on delivering exceptional customer experience for localized and cross-border commerce.
Today every company must consider how to leverage financial services to better serve and retain customers and drive greater margin. That’s why it is essential to partner with a FaaS provider with a truly global reach and the ability to support numerous local and alternative payment methods. Now is the time to build a globally adaptive enterprise with limitless scale – and do so without having to build the infrastructure first.
Put Fintech as a Service
to Work for You.
Rapyd Fintech as a Service can – from the same cloud-based platform – enable a simple use case, like helping a merchant collect payments using locally-preferred methods in 100+ countries. It also supports more complex scenarios, like a large consumer brand offering their own international ewallet solution, with ID Verification, AML screening, local cash top-up, integrated FX, disbursement, and loyalty programs.
With Rapyd, getting started offering your own financial services is as easy as embedding our pre-built APIs for a seamless customer-facing, user experience.
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