Lithuania based banking technology integrator Velmie has entered a partnership with fintech startup Flot to build a digital banking platform targeting consumers and businesses across African markets, reflecting rising demand for infrastructure capable of supporting fintech expansion across multiple jurisdictions.
The project brings together Flot’s digital banking ambitions with Velmie’s services focused approach to banking deployment, as fintech companies across the continent contend with fragmented payment networks, mobile money integration challenges and regulatory complexity that can slow expansion beyond initial launches.
Under the agreement, Flot will use Velmie’s implementation model to accelerate deployment of its banking platform, which will combine payment infrastructure, card issuing capabilities, identity verification processes and compliance workflows with digital banking channels intended for production scale use.
The platform is being designed around conditions common across African financial markets, according to the companies, including mobile first usage patterns, agent based distribution networks, hybrid payment environments and local financial infrastructure requirements.
Planned services include digital wallets with onboarding and identity verification, mobile money transfers, merchant collections, utility payments, airtime purchases, account linking services, bank transfers and agent banking capabilities. The platform is also expected to support both business to consumer and business to business financial products.
Velmie positions itself as a delivery partner for regulated financial technology programmes, providing architecture design, integration management, implementation services, operational support and go live activities rather than focusing only on software supply.
“Launching regulated fintech products in African markets requires more than software , it requires execution capability across integrations, compliance, payment rails and operational delivery,” said Slava Ivashkin, CEO and founder of Velmie.
“With Flot, we are helping deliver a scalable digital banking platform designed to operate reliably in complex, multi-market environments.”
The companies say growing competition across Africa’s fintech market is increasing pressure on digital banks, electronic money institutions and fintech operators to build infrastructure that can support expansion across multiple countries while maintaining regulatory and operational requirements.
