Irish fintech startup Leveris has  announced its cloud-based digital banking platform to faciliate the launch of low-cost, digital-first banks.

Leveris claims its platform will “dramatically reduce the cost, complexity and time it takes to launch modern, agile, future-proofed banking and lending propositions”, and that it enables both banks and non-bank entities to offer a wide variety of retail banking products. 

According to founder and chief executive Conor Fennelly (pictured), the company didn’t just want to build a better core banking system or rush to jump on the fintech bandwagon.

“Instead, we’ve taken our time to create and develop a cloud-native, turnkey, end-to-end, software-defined banking platform from scratch, designed specifically for the rapid launch of low-cost, greenfield digital banks and lending propositions. It’s not so much a case of banks failing their customers, but more a case of technology failing banks,” he said.

The technology has already been deployed, enabling Australian plc Link Group to enter the Dutch market where it is now executing loans and servicing millions of euros for three of its clients.

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According to Fennelly, in the Dutch example Leveris has helped deliver a 70% reduction in average application to drawdown time, enabled the on-boarding of additional lenders to the platform in less than four weeks, and delivered a significant reduction in operational costs for Link Group.

He stresses that the key to the Leveris banking platform is that it escapes any and all connection to legacy banking systems.  “It is an ideal solution for traditional banks, new challenger banks or consumer brands who want to avoid the lengthy integration and implementation timelines, and launch a turnkey bank in a matter of weeks,” he stated.

“What’s unique about the Leveris digital banking platform is that we provide everything a bank needs to be able to offer beautiful digital banking products all from one unified platform.”

Leveris was founded in Dublin in 2016 and employs c.200 people, with offices and development centres in Prague, Brno and Minsk (the Ukraine team is pictured above). UK company Link Market Services EMEA Ltd invested €15m in the venture in July 2018. Irish taxpayers funded Leveris with €500,000 in January 2018.

Abridged financial statements for Leveris Ltd prepared by auditors Duignan Carthy O'Neill disclose equity invested of €16m and liabilities of €28.5m in December 2018.  Balance sheet cash was €21.2m.

Development expenditure was in the books at €5.7m and financial assets of €12.7m related to investment in unidentified subsidiaries. Total loans stood at €26.8m in December 2018, most of which was owed to unidentified ‘connected parties’.

According to Link Group’s annual report for 2019: “During the year Link Group made an investment of €25m in Leveris. Link Group’s total ownership of Leveris is 13.1%.”