Algbra Labs pioneers fintech-as-a-service for fast-tracking digital financial platforms: A case study of Shoal

Building digital financial platforms has typically required outsourcing extensive products and services—from the core banking engine to app design to back-office tooling, often requiring engagement with multiple vendors. This has forced the end client to run multiple RFPs and mix and match the successful bidders, making the process of building digital financial platforms time-consuming and costly and, in far too many cases, resulting in sub-par quality.

In response to these pain points, Algbra Labs has innovated through its fintech-as-a-service (FaaS) approach, a one-stop shop for building, launching, and even running digital financial platforms and products.

Impressed by Algbra Labs’ FaaS model and technical capabilities, SC Ventures, the innovation arm of Standard Chartered Bank, recently enlisted the Algbra team to build, launch and run its sustainable savings platform Shoal with the goal of delivering the next generation of sustainable savings. Reflecting on the partnership, Tom Mason, co-founder of Shoal and former group chief of staff at Standard Chartered, commented: “By moving from the traditional BaaS model to working with Algbra Labs’ FaaS offering, we’ve probably gone further and faster in the last four months than we did in the previous two years”.

So, what is FaaS? And how can it change the way banks and companies build, launch and run digital financial services?

“Traditionally, core banking solutions include ledger, product, and treasury management with reporting capabilities. However, these features alone are insufficient to launch a new digital banking proposition. A comprehensive proposition requires many additional components such as payments, cards, vendor management, accounts, deposits, and a robust back-office experience,” says Anton Laurens, lead full stack engineer at Algbra Labs.

Algbra Labs’ FaaS solution can be grouped into three main components:

1. ReactorMesh: Acts as the abstraction layer that supports vendor management and financial orchestration, enabling efficient and flexible integrations with third-party services. This allows clients to avoid “vendor lock-in,” making it easier to plug and play different services as needed. “When we started out on Shoal, we spent a lot of time and money identifying potential providers for each component we needed. In each instance, we ran RFPs, interviewed and re-interviewed, shortlisted, and negotiated contracts, and then when we had our dream team of providers assembled (and many of them were excellent), we had a new task of getting them all to work with each other. In contrast, when we agreed to our partnership with Algbra Labs, we were provided with all the components needed to launch and operate the Shoal proposition under one contract with a single point of contact. The savings in time, money, and emotional energy have been huge”, explains Mason.
2. FusionEngine: Contains core banking functionalities including payments, cards, risk and compliance, lending, and credits, providing a solid foundation for financial operations. While many BaaS providers offer payment rails and a ledger, FusionEngine provides replicable product services and supports UX/UI if needed.
3. Fabrik: Encompasses not only the customer experience across channels but also the back-office operational aspects—ensuring a seamless interaction between customers and operational teams. Typically, BaaS providers expect you to go at it alone on customer support—requiring multiple integrations with a CRM tool, an onboarding tool, a transaction monitoring tool, etc. Fabrik’s Mission Control (Misco) portal provides all essential services in one place: a next-generation workflow management and dispute resolution tool, as well as CRM and onboarding.

By incorporating these comprehensive features, Algbra Labs’ FaaS solution ensures that all necessary components are in place for launching a fully functional digital banking proposition. This makes it an unparalleled platform in the fintech industry, capable of addressing the diverse needs of modern banking propositions with unprecedented flexibility. Crucially, you can choose as much or as little as you need, making it a solution for any type of need and type of organisation.

Mason adds that “under the FaaS model, clients are provided with as much or as little as they need to launch and scale. There is no bundling and no unnecessary cost—as founders of Shoal, we have been able to pick from a menu of services across technology, product development, customer acquisition and support, ongoing monitoring and AML right through to marketing and data analytics. This enabled us to design a package that does exactly what we need with no wasted effort or cost.”

Within just four months of starting the partnership with Algbra Labs, Shoal was built and ready to go live.

Find out more about and get in contact with Algbra Labs here. 

Read more about Shoal here.