From a Provider-Dependent Stack to a Scalable Financial Platform

Kleos reached a point where extending the existing platform created more constraints than opportunities. The next stage of growth required a fundamentally different operating model — not a technology refresh, but a business transformation.

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Kleos app balances screen showing crypto and fiat holdings

Kleos wanted to evolve from a provider-dependent fintech application into a platform capable of supporting long-term product expansion.

Target operating model

Self-custody wallets
Fiat banking infrastructure
Card payments
Tokenized investment mechanics
Stablecoin operations
Yield products

Kleos platform illustration with cards, wallets, and digital assets

What made this difficult

Strategic

Core customer experiences and financial operations depended on infrastructure decisions made earlier in the product lifecycle.

Operational

Wallet custody, banking operations, payment services, and investment products operated across separate environments and provider models.

Product

Introducing new services required disproportionate implementation effort because changes had to be coordinated across disconnected systems.

Economic

Scaling the current architecture increased integration costs and created long-term migration risk.

The challenge was not delivering new functionality. The challenge was building an operating model capable of supporting future functionality.

If Kleos continued to scale the existing setup, the likely outcomes included:

Slower product releases
Increasing provider dependency
Duplicated operational processes
Growing infrastructure costs
Reduced speed of introducing new financial products
Expensive future migrations
Limited ownership over customer experience
Higher compliance and operational overhead

Over time, the business risk would shift from technical debt to strategic debt.

Option	Why companies choose it	Where it breaks
Continue with existing infrastructure	Minimal disruption and lower short-term investment	Product expansion remains constrained
Replace only custody infrastructure	Faster implementation	Does not solve fragmentation
Build a completely custom platform	Maximum ownership	Long delivery cycle and high execution cost
Add providers incrementally	Short-term flexibility	Creates operational complexity
Create a unified infrastructure foundation	Enables long-term product flexibility	Requires stronger architecture decisions upfront

Kleos evaluated the trade-off between short-term delivery speed and long-term product ownership. The selected direction prioritized extensibility and infrastructure control rather than short-term optimization.

Unified financial infrastructure

One operational layer supporting traditional and digital financial services.

Banking and payment operations

Infrastructure supporting Euro IBAN accounts and SEPA/SWIFT flows.

Global payment experiences

Visa card capabilities integrated into the product ecosystem.

Digital asset ownership

Migration toward non-custodial wallets using Web3Auth with MPC and Account Abstraction capabilities.

Stablecoin infrastructure

Support for USDC on Ethereum.

Investment and yield capabilities

Tokenized yield vaults and portfolio execution through on-chain operations.

Smart-contract orchestration

A programmable layer connecting investment, wallet, and payment experiences.

Operational management

Administrative and back-office capabilities supporting control and visibility.

Launch and expand faster

New financial capabilities can be introduced without rebuilding infrastructure layers.

Reduce infrastructure dependency

Product evolution becomes less constrained by individual vendors.

Improve unit economics

Reusable infrastructure lowers marginal delivery effort for future services.

Support additional product lines

The platform becomes capable of supporting future banking, payment, wallet, and investment scenarios.

Increase strategic flexibility

Business decisions are no longer blocked by architectural limitations.

Prepare for future regulatory evolution

Infrastructure decisions support a more scalable compliance model.

MVP

Launched Kleos on its new Fintech Core platform, migrating customers off the legacy ABC-powered app. Individual customers onboard with phone and email verification and complete KYC through Sumsub. Delivered the core banking integration with Stanhope - personal IBAN issuance, real-time balance sync, SEPA/SWIFT transfers, AML hooks and reconciliation.

10 weeks

v1.1

Shipped the platform's first investment product: non-custodial deposits and withdrawals into yield-generating vaults, with a dedicated investment UI and full transaction history. Added Web3Auth-based wallet login and free internal transfers between Kleos customers. Fiat and crypto balances were unified on one home screen, with investing and referrals positioned as the two flagship features of a fee-free plan.

6 weeks

v1.1.1

Introduced fees on outgoing SEPA and SWIFT transfers, configurable by currency and transfer type, with an upfront estimate before sending and a full breakdown afterward. Existing customers were shielded from retroactive charges.

2 weeks

v1.2.0

Brings Visa card issuance to Kleos - both virtual and physical cards, tiered into Base and Gold products. Customers can freeze and unfreeze a card, set and view their PIN, check live card balances, and top up directly from their account balance. Rounds out with card limits, secure on-demand card-detail viewing, and the ability to block or terminate a card right from settings.

8 weeks

Map the infrastructure decisions first.

Planning to combine banking, payments, cards, and digital assets in one product? Let's map the infrastructure decisions first before growth turns architecture into a business constraint.

15+ years building regulated fintech products. 100+ platforms delivered. We know what breaks at launch and what holds up at scale.

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