Who are you and what do you do?
We are Leveris. We deliver full-stack, standalone, core bank and lending platforms for traditional banks, challenger banks and consumer brands.
The Leveris platform contains (i) a full service, end-to-end digital retail bank and (ii) a full-spectrum lending solution.
It is a fully integrated, back-end, middleware and front-end services and applications platform built using open standard formats, APIs and protocols.
This allows new technology innovations and 3rd party products and services to be easily integrated, keeping any bank up to date with technology change.
When was your company founded?
2014
Tell your founding story: How and why did you create your company?
Our founder and CEO Conor Fennelly has been at the forefront of enterprise software development for financial services industry since 1995. He has engineered innovative solutions for banks, blue chips, and governments including but not limited to HP, Indonesian Banks, e-filing and e-taxation system for Indonesia and tier 1 European banks.
He watched industries like retail, music and accommodation cleverly use platform technology to transform their industries with a rapidly evolving world. He saw how we have moved from a 'product and solution' economy to a marketplace economy.
Banking, however, remains stuck in the past. Traditional banks rely on 1970's technology and legacy systems that are complex, risky and expensive to modernise. These 20th-century monolith systems were squeezed onto smaller screens and dubbed ‘mobile banking’. It simply wasn’t good enough.
So back in 2014, he decided to transform the industry and build the banking platform of the future. He contacted the team that built AirBank in the Czech Republic (one of the most successful digital banks in Europe) and asked them if they want to join the Leveris team to do something similar but on a global scale. They gladly accepted.
As the platform began to grow, and learning from what we have done before with AirBank, so too did our excitement. We realised that it could be adaptable for any bank, traditional or challenger. Not only that, it could be used by anyone looking to provide a fully compliant financial service at low cost, in a very short timeframe. The possibilities were endless and we began envisaging a world in which every financial transaction stemmed from one comprehensive open platform.
We have spent the last 3 years focused on building the most advanced marketplace banking platform on the market today with a team that has been there and done it before.
Now we want to share what we've built with the world.
Where is your company located?
Dublin, Ireland and Prague, Czech Republic.
How big is the team?
Headquartered in Dublin with a development centre in Prague. We are a team of 150+ specialists with core expertise in banking and financial services who have built a banking platform engineered to remove a bank's technology worries.
What is the background of key people involved?
Conor Fennelly - CEO
Conor has been at the forefront of enterprise software development for financial services industry since 1995. He has engineered innovative solutions for banks, blue chips, and governments including but not limited to HP, Indonesian Banks, e-filing and e-taxation system for Indonesia and tier 1 European banks.
Petr Pillar - CIO
Petr has spent the last 15 years at the cutting edge of banking system technology. He was formerly the Banking System Division Director at ARBES Technologies where he managed core banking implementations (90+ people) for banks. He was responsible for the core system build for Air Bank, one of Europe’s most successful digital banks.
Eoin Fleming - CISO
Eoin is a security and compliance expert with 18+ years’ experience in financial services including security and compliance management, outsourcing, service management, delivery management and SLA/contract negotiation. He holds the following certifications ISSMP, CISSP, CISA, CRISC, ISO27001 Lead Auditor.
Norbert Bruell - Head of Strategy
Norbert spent 20 years in the Indonesian natural resources business, including 5 years as MD of an Indonesian family investment group. He was involved in a number of medium and large mergers and acquisitions. In 2003 he founded Singapore-based financial and business advisory firm Amdex. Since 1998, he’s participated in software development businesses with Conor Fennelly.
Oliver Herrmann
Oliver has been an active entrepreneur and successfully exited several ventures over the past 10 years including RFID manufacturer Smartrac N.V. He is also the founder of a successful direct mortgage lending business in South East Asia.
Gillian Lynch
Gillian has spent 20+ years in banking. Before joining Leveris, she held a number of senior management roles in Bank of Ireland including Head of Retail Planning Retail Division, Head of Strategy & Business Development Bank of Ireland UK, Head of IT and Operations Post Office FS. Gillian brings a wealth of banking expertise to the team.
Siobhan Fennelly
Siobhan is a digital strategist, experienced programme manager and change management specialist with over 15 years experience in key senior roles across Financial Services in Retail, Operations, Corporate Banking, Credit Risk, Mobile Payments Innovation, Digital Transformation and Solution Delivery.
Did you receive funding for your company?
No. We are completely funded by our founder and CEO Conor Fennelly
How are you different?
Traditional banking software providers will offer you a full end-to-end solution for all your needs, as do we. However, our platform has 7 distinct differences:
- Lower Cost: Core banking implementations are characterised by high CapEx entry costs, followed by costly ongoing OpEx. Our cloud-based platform virtually eliminates CapEx and dramatically reduces OpEx. We can help any F.I. launch a new digital bank or service for a fraction of the cost of our competitors.
- Lower Risk: The way we implement a core banking project dramatically reduces the risk for a bank. We deliver a standalone core banking solution that has minimal contact with any legacy technology. It’s a balanced and safe approach to a core banking transformation which enables banks to fully test and prove the system before they start a controlled and safe data migration pull. It’s an approach that has zero impact to their current system and their users.
- Cloud Native: Unlike our some of our competitors, who just moved old core banking technology to the cloud, taking all the legacy problems with it; we have built our banking platform specifically for the cloud using modern architecture, open-source components and protocols. This means innovation, 3rd party integration, upgrades, compliance etc. can all be done in a fraction of the time and cost of any other system.
- Speed to Market: Launching a challenger bank can take years. We’ll build a new, standalone platform in weeks.
- Marketplace banking: Our modular and extensible platform runs on micro-services and open APIs meaning our clients can implement only the services they want, while also building profitable partnerships with market innovators. Banks can now plug-in any 3rd party service they want (e.g.) Instead of competing on FX with Currencyfair or Transferwise, you can just plug them into our platform and agree on a revenue share. Or any other service such as Wealthfront, Stripe, ApplePay, BitCoin, your electricity bill etc. You name it.
- Revenue: The Leveris platform is conceived, designed and built for revenue-positive or cost-neutral operation. Our unique, multi-purpose lending solution is already fully integrated into a new bank. This means the Leveris platform can start making money from day one unlike the majority of neo-banks and/or transaction only banking service providers.
- Data Monetization: We monetise data for the bank and for the end consumer. Internet companies such as Facebook and Google make billions of dollars by selling its user's data. We want customers to be able to share their own data securely with 3rd parties and earn money from it. After all, it’s their data.
What does the future look like?
In just a few months we have a stacked pipeline of banks and financial institutions looking for help in replacing their old and crumbling technology. The future looks quite busy.
