At a glance
Project year
2020
Bank type
Fintech
Cloud partner
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Geography
UK and EEA
Challenges
Curve’s goal is clear: they needed an advanced technology platform to seamlessly power their radical new credit offering, Curve Flex.
The solution
Powered by Vault Core, and running as SaaS on AWS, Curve Flex is building out its own credit proposition; an extension to its highly successful Curve all-in-one card and app. Once the service is live, users will be able to initiate instalment-plans on eligible purchases made with their Curve card, without requiring merchant integration. Curve’s unique instalment functionality will allow users to turn transactions into possible instalments and switch the account and card to be used, if required. Using Thought Machine’s Smart Contracts and product library, Curve Flex will launch this innovative product to market.
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What Curve Flex and Thought Machine are doing together is to deliver a product that people need. We’ve seen the explosion of the credit market, and it’s not delivered what the customer has needed, until now. Curve Flex offers a product that’s responsible - for both lender and borrower, not one or the other. That’s why we’re different.
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Nathalie Oestmann
Chief Operating Officer
Curve
Our Story
When it comes to financial services, Curve isn’t just defying the status quo, they’re defining the new normal. Curve believes that everyone should have transparency and control over their money through powerful financial tools. To solve this problem Shachar and his team built Curve, an all-in-one financial super app that consolidates multiple cards into a single smart card and app.
The Buy Now Pay Later market is one of fintech’s most exciting subsectors and is booming globally. Curve is best-placed to enhance what’s currently on offer in the market with the help of Thought Machine. Curve Flex will take a more considered and responsible approach to offering customers credit. With Vault Core, Curve Flex will offer a number of features to make credit affordable, accessible and ultimately, more appropriate, for its customer base.
Curve selected Vault Core, running from AWS servers as a Software-as-a-Service, as the perfect option to deliver this innovation to market. The capabilities of our product engine makes us a perfect match for Curve’s ambitions. Curve will harness our ‘Line of Credit’ product, running on Vault, to make Curve Flex happen. This particular product, configured from our product library, allows our clients’ customers to have access to a single amount of pre-agreed credit.
Rather than take the full loan amount out all at once – Curve Flex customers will be able to access funds as required, each time forming individual loans.
Results
Smart Contracts, smart products
Curve Flex is launching a product which the market has never seen before. A loan product, tied to an all-in-one card, which offers responsible lending and borrowing on agreeable terms. For that, Curve needed a solution which was configurable, yet powerful. Our Smart Contracts and product library were the perfect choice – our Line of Credit product was the right product to deliver this particular feature being offered by Curve Flex.
Loans, re-imagined
Curve Flex is offering more than just loans. Users will be able to split transactions into instalments, with a specific interest-free period, no matter the card, merchant or time of purchase. All of these features will be configured within Vault Core's product engine – and are the foundations for Curve Flex to deliver groundbreaking fintech innovation and high levels of customer satisfaction.
Responsible lending from the core
Head of Curve Flex, Paul Harrald, says: “We want to be absolutely convinced that a customer who, for example, takes out multiple loans with us can comfortably afford to repay the loans.” We echo this sentiment – our real-time core, connecting to the industry through APIs, ensures data is consistent, transmitted instantly, and can feed into the necessary systems to ensure Curve Flex has full visibility and insights into the applicability of those taking credit.
Cloud native
Curve has ambitions to become the financial control centre for consumers everywhere. That means an app with the highest levels of customer experience, resilience, security and cutting-edge features. With Vault Core, Curve Flex will benefit from all the features of running its core from AWS servers. Vault Core's microservices-based architecture splits our software into self-sustaining, individual components. Vault Core will scale up as needed, harnessing more servers and accommodating increasing demand – this is crucial as Curve Flex embarks on its growth plans and on-boards more users in the UK and Europe.
