If you’ve been following Marqeta for some time, you’ll know we have a strong commitment to in-depth insights with all of our fantastic partners.
We recently sat down with SDK.finance Co-Founder and CEO Alex Malyshev to talk about the business and their journey with us so far. SDK.finance is a ledger-based platform for the development of PayTech products. From e-wallets and neobanks, to payment processing and money transfer systems.
So how did the business come about and what is there to learn from their partnership with Marqeta? Hi Alex, thanks for dedicating some time to us today. What can you tell me about SDK.finance? Hi, no problem at all. Let’s start with the name. SDK.finance stands for “Software Development Kit Finance". Which may tell you what we do. Our product was born from the realisation that back-end functionality is crucially important for financial products. We realised a set of “pre-built” modules would speed up and facilitate the FinTech development process for businesses looking to launch or modernise their product. Roughly 70% of development resources are spent on building the backend from scratch, which is not only resource-intensive but also risky. Many companies never make it past the backend development phase, either for financial reasons or because of the expertise needed, that most lack. We give companies a scalable and customisable FinTech backend. This helps them get through the product development process and focus on UX and front-end design.
Such a great value proposition. How do you partner with companies? Apart from the transaction engine, which is the core of the platform, we extend our offering with a dedicated development team of FinTech experts. They’re well-versed in SDK.finance software and can either complement the client’s team or take over the development completely. This approach helps us eliminate risks and ensure our customers’ products are launched in the shortest possible time. That’s a massive bonus for our clients and a key differentiator for us. As a foundation for a variety of FinTech products, SDK.finance serves customers around the world. We have clients in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Ghana, Spain, the UK, the USA, Luxembourg, Canada, and Ukraine. Solutions range from local payment apps and mobile wallets to an international payment processing system that operates a network of POS terminals in MENA. Our mission is to provide a comprehensive financial platform to our customers We take pride in offering integrations with Marqeta, Mastercard, Corefy (a payment orchestration platform), CurrencyCloud, and more. At present, we’re working towards integrating vendors who offer KYC/KYB and IBAN services and are on the lookout for new integration opportunities.
How did you come to learn about Marqeta and how did you start to work with us? We’ve recognised Marqeta as an industry frontrunner in card issuance for some time. Your distinguished position as a market leader drew us in and made us eager to explore a partnership. We also conducted our own research on the card issuance market and were surprised to find many don’t provide adequate documentation, let alone a sandbox environment to facilitate integration development. Marqeta's commitment to technological innovation and support, particularly for developers, truly captivated us. That was a critical factor for us as a tech company, as it allowed our development team to seamlessly navigate and integrate with Marqeta's platform.
Tell us more about the integration you’ve built with Marqeta? Our integration with Marqeta within the SDK.finance platform plays a pivotal role in empowering customers to provide a range of card-related functionalities. Namely… Card issuance Our customers can issue virtual or physical cards through our system. This process is customisable, allowing end-users to select their preferred card type and design. Card management The integration encompasses card management features, including handling lost, stolen, or damaged cards. It also helps end-users to manage the status of their cards in various scenarios, facilitating actions like activation, deactivation, or reissuing of cards. Pin code and spend control management Users can manage their card's PIN codes and exercise control over spending, regulating the transaction amount, and frequency of spending in a specific time frame. They can also control spending amounts at specific merchants or categories of merchants. Digital wallets functionality The integration allows users to link their cards to an internal wallet in our system and seamlessly use the card to fund or withdraw money from their e-wallet, as well as complete online and offline card transactions. Funding support The integration with Marqeta accommodates different types of card funding, including Just-in-Time funding support. This feature ensures flexibility in funding options for end-users of the solutions our customers build.
This short video gives an overview of the process of issuing cards using the SDK.finance FinTech platform and demonstrates how it works for an end-user. Our integration allows clients to work with Marqeta without having to create their own integration. It makes issuing of cards for their users easier and more streamlined. Additionally, depending on the client's requirements, the integration can be expanded to include other features within the Marqeta platform.It's important to note that for the integration to work, our client must have a specific agreement with Marqeta that outlines the functionalities available.
How did you find working with our platform and tech? Honestly? Working with Marqeta was a breeze. Both the tech and the platform. The well-documented and user-friendly API, coupled with exceptional developer support, gave us a seamless and conducive space to integrate and test our solutions. It perfectly aligned with our goals. The sandbox environment was great. It worked like a charm. All testing ran smoothly, so we had a solid foundation for testing and development. The only minor challenge was the extensive API, which boasts a myriad of capabilities. But honestly, it was an awesome experience integrating with such an innovative company.
Have you tried Docs AI? Are you familiar with it? No, sadly. I regret not having the opportunity to try Docs AI, as it was released after our integration was complete. It's an excellent concept, and I believe it could bring significant value, although we didn't personally experience it. I genuinely appreciated the quality of the documentation. Even without the AI feature, it was comprehensive and user-friendly, which made our experience working with it highly positive.
What benefits does the SDK.finance/Marqeta integration offer? The integration with Marqeta offers a significant advantage to our customers, helping to expand their value proposition with fast and efficient card issuance. They get to diversify their product portfolio by offering payment cards to their customers, which is seen as a fundamental component of many financial products. More than that, we've seamlessly integrated the business processes for card issuance, extending beyond the mere technical implementation of the provider. Through adaptation, all these processes are readily available to the customers within the SDK.finance platform. Essentially, our integration signifies the alignment of our business processes with Marqeta's services. Finally, our system empowers clients to adapt the integration to meet their regulatory compliance needs, especially in relation to PCI DSS standards. It offers businesses the ability to determine how they handle sensitive card data, whether by using open card numbers or tokens. If a client's infrastructure aligns with PCI DSS compliance, they possess the autonomy to configure it accordingly. On the other hand, if they don’t meet these requirements, leveraging Marqeta's assistance can fulfil this responsibility, ensuring compliance with PCI DSS standards.
Are you seeing any trends in card payments at the moment? We talk a lot about embedded finance and supporting nonfinancial businesses with cards. Are you seeing this?
One notable trend we’re seeing is the increasing interest in embedding financial services.
Services like account opening, transaction processing, card issuance, and processing into business operations. For example, financial institutions often seek to enhance their digital wallets and investment apps by embedding multi-currency accounts, advanced transaction management, and currency exchange capabilities, including cryptocurrencies, into their products.
That way they can provide their users with a more comprehensive financial experience.
Payment companies are keen to create gateways that allow merchants to accept payments, make payouts, and send invoices directly within various platforms like B2B marketplaces.They can then provide efficient and cost-effective financial operations. Especially for customers operating across international borders.
Retailers and ride-hailing services are exploring the creation of e-wallets embedded directly into the platform’s digital interface to ensure greater convenience for customers.
Other than that, embedded finance appears to be a new distribution channel for financial institutions allowing them to tap into a larger customer base. By integrating banking functions with non-financial platforms, banks can efficiently target new customer segments that might not have engaged with them otherwise.
In addition, embedded financial services can significantly reduce customer acquisition costs for financial institutions. Instead of investing heavily in marketing and PR to acquire customers, they can leverage the existing user base of partner companies and thus reduce CAC. In the face of intense competition, this approach is beneficial for businesses that will be quick enough to capitalise on this opportunity.
Where can you support partners and customers now and how do they access the Marqeta/SDK.finance integration? The SDK.finance integration with Marqeta enhances the value proposition for various SDK.finance software use cases. For example, if you’re a digital wallet or neobank user you can enjoy payment cards that link seamlessly with their internal wallets for secure online payments, money transfers, and spend management. Cards also provide an added layer of security and convenience for P2P transactions.
Financial institutions can offer their customers debit cards that link with their accounts, providing an extra layer of security for online transactions.
Remittance service users can transfer funds instantly to a virtual card and access the funds immediately for everyday expenses. This enables them to have secure and convenient access to their funds.
Our integration with Marqeta also enables the issuance of multi-currency cards that simplify currency exchange.
Customers can load multiple currencies onto a single card and use it to withdraw cash or make purchases in different countries.
The integration is available in the SDK.finance platform's SaaS version out of the box. In the source code version, it makes up an optional additional module that can be customised by the customer's in-house team.
So far the relationship with Marqeta has been more than fruitful. We’re really excited to see what the future holds and where the possibilities might take us.
A huge thank you to Alex and the team for their time.
You can find out more about SDK.finance, including pricing and full capabilities right here.
