Most fintech launches stall at the same two points: the licence, and the bank. A product can be designed, built and ready to go, then sit for months because nobody settled which entity is regulated, or because the banking partner was approached last instead of first.
We sequence it the other way round. Decide what you are, where you are authorised, and who will bank you — then build the product around an architecture that survives scrutiny.
The work spans neobanks and digital account products, embedded-finance models, lending platforms and the BaaS partnerships many of them depend on.
- You are building a neobank, digital account or embedded-finance product and have not fixed the regulated entity.
- Your product depends on a BaaS partner and you need to understand the dependency and the exit.
- You have a licence in one market and want to serve customers in another without rebuilding from scratch.
- Development is well advanced but no one has confirmed what can lawfully be launched.
Sequencing is the whole game
Licensing, banking and product are one decision, not three. Approached in the wrong order, a launch can be fully built and still unable to open a single customer account.
BaaS dependency, managed honestly
Partner-bank models move fast but concentrate risk. We size the dependency, document it and build the migration path before it becomes urgent.
Product shaped to the licence
What you can offer customers is bounded by your permissions. We design the roadmap inside those bounds rather than discovering them at launch.
- Entity and licence strategy per market, with the sequencing and dependencies set out
- BaaS, sponsor and processor partner strategy, including dependency and exit analysis
- Product and roadmap assessment against the permissions you actually hold or will hold
- Compliance and AML programme appropriate to the customer base
- Banking and partner introductions, coordinated through onboarding
- Market-entry sequence and the licensing workstream for each step
- 01
Define the product precisely
Not the pitch — the mechanics. Who holds customer funds, who bears credit risk, who is the counterparty on each product. The regulatory answer follows from this.
- 02
Fix the entity and licence plan
Which entity is authorised, in which market, under which regime, and what has to be true before launch.
- 03
Secure the rails
Banking, BaaS and processing relationships started early, because they are usually the long pole rather than the licence.
- 04
Build compliance
AML, KYC, complaints, safeguarding and reporting, sized to the customer base you expect rather than to a template.
- 05
Launch and extend
Go-live support, then the next market or product inside the existing structure wherever possible.
Feasibility and sequencing
A written assessment of what is launchable, in what order, and what it costs — before significant build spend.
Launch programme
Entity, licence, banking and compliance run as one programme through to go-live.
Market expansion
Extending an operating model into a new jurisdiction with the minimum necessary structural change.
- Concept-stage ideas seeking validation of a model that has not been worked through commercially.
- Teams that intend to launch first and regularise later — in regulated financial services that sequence rarely survives contact with a bank.
Often yes, on a partner-bank model, and it is a legitimate route to market. The caveats matter: you will not control onboarding, you may not control pricing, and your product roadmap is bounded by the partner. It is a strong start if you treat it as a step and design the migration path, and a trap if you treat it as the destination.
The bank conversation, usually. It tells you what the licence has to demonstrate, and in practice the banking constraint is more binding than the regulatory one. Approaching them in the other order is the most common and most expensive sequencing mistake in this sector.
We will not quote a headline figure, because the range is driven by the pathway and the market. What the diagnostic produces is an itemised view — licence fees, capital or safeguarding requirements, compliance staffing, partner costs — so you can judge it properly instead of against a competitor’s press release.
No. We are not a software house and we do not pretend to be. We design the structure and the regulatory position, select and introduce the partners, and coordinate the programme — then work alongside your engineering team or your vendor.