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Insights and Expertise

What's striking is that fintech infrastructure firms
Why infrastructure fintechs aren't trying to be everything to everyone. Their dif-
are winning the long game ferentiation comes from doing one complex thing ex-
tremely well—be it cross-border payments, KYC auto-
For years, consumer-facing fintechs captured mation or fraud analytics—and building deep, defen-
headlines—and investor dollars—with slick apps, sible technology around it.
bold branding and promises to "reimagine banking."
But as growth expectations collided with tightening Strategic capital and expansion
capital, the spotlight has shifted to the companies
powering financial services behind the scenes: While overall fintech investment has cooled, infrastruc-
infrastructure fintechs. ture players are defying the trend. Global investment in
digital infrastructure is projected to exceed $160 billion in
Unlike neobanks and personal finance apps, 2025, reflecting a growing appetite for scalable, secure and
infrastructure players don't compete for end users. interoperable platforms.
They build the rails that payments, banking,
compliance, fraud detection and identity verification This shift marks a broader investor recalibration, from
depend on. Their value isn't tied to marketing buzz chasing user growth to backing companies that solve sys-
or app downloads; it's tied to resilience, scale, uptime temic, high-friction problems. Infrastructure fintechs are
and regulatory trust. attracting capital not just for what they build, but for how
deeply they embed into the financial fabric.
Infrastructure platforms are embedded deep inside
institutional workflows, making them far harder They are deploying that capital with precision by:
to replace and far more attractive to long-horizon • Deepening technical capabilities: Investing in
investors. Their revenue models are based on usage R&D to enhance platform performance, resilience,
and integration rather than customer churn. And and compliance automation.
because they solve systemic problems—such as
cross-border payment latency, KYC friction and data • Expanding globally through partnerships: Inte-
fragmentation—they benefit from long sales cycles grating with regional banks, regulators, and pay-
and long contracts. ment networks to unlock new markets.
• Scaling responsibly: Prioritizing uptime, reliabil-
As capital flows toward firms that enable rather ity, and trust over blitz-scaling.
than disrupt, one theme is clear: the future of fintech
won't be defined by who has the flashiest interface, This shift highlights the importance of building with the
but by who builds the foundations strong enough for foresight to scale across borders, regulatory regimes and
everything else to scale. market cycles, rather than just building fast.

Building the future from the ground up
Their platforms are engineered with a long-term architec- As the fintech sector matures, the spotlight is shifting
tural vision, often exhibiting three defining traits: away from surface-level innovation to structural trans-
formation. Infrastructure fintechs aren't just part of that
1. API-first modularity: These fintechs build as if ev- story, they are the story, designing the digital bedrock on
ery component might one day plug into another eco- which tomorrow's financial services will be built.
system. This design philosophy enables flexibility for
clients to integrate quickly, extend capabilities, and This moment demands more than incremental product
stay future-proof in an evolving regulatory and tech- thinking. It calls for deep engineering rigor, scalable archi-
nological environment. tecture and long-term strategic vision. As CTOs, we have a

2. Interoperability by design: Legacy systems don't unique vantage point (and a responsibility) to shape finan-
vanish overnight. That's why infrastructure fintechs cial systems that are not only powerful and performant,
focus on easy integration. but also resilient, ethical and future-ready.

3. Built for scale and specialization: These platforms Because when the infrastructure is strong, everything else
are built to serve institutions with millions of custom- can thrive.
ers and complex compliance regimes. The architecture
anticipates scale from day one, with microservices, Andrii Shevchuk is CRO and partner at CONCRYT. You can reach him via
cloud-native infrastructure and real-time data process- LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/andrii-shevchuk-53224645.
ing built into the DNA.

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