Helped establish the first Neobank headquartered in Saudi Arabia

IN A NUTSHELL

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microservices and integrations developed

Scaled a multi-geographical team of 30 IT professionals in 6 months

Leveraged expertise from over 20 specialized squads

About Client
What was the challenge
How we solved the problem
Technologies we used to help the client
The results

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About Client

A sharia compliant bank licensed by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), the client is among the first neobanks in Saudi Arabia offering a full-fledged digital-only banking platform powered by AI. Ciklum’s partnership with the client helped lay down its digital operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and introduce smart financial solutions based on cashless banking.

500

EMPLOYEES

KSA

LOCATION

Banking

INDUSTRY

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What was the challenge

The neobank faced challenges in obtaining a banking license due to a shortage of technical resources and compliance teams. The stringent regulations set by the Saudi Central Bank meant that the client was poised to be the first new bank opening in KSA in two decades. Recognizing that 60% of Saudi nationals are under the age of 30, the client aimed to cater to the preferences and needs of this younger demographic, diverging from the conventional client base. Additionally, the project was already behind the timeline anticipated by shareholders.

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How we solved the problem

Partnering with Ciklum enabled the client to secure its digital banking license from SAMA, establishing KSA’s first digital-only bank. With staff augmentation and Ciklum’s expertise, the client met IT compliance, legal, and certification needs, accelerating its MVP launch. This partnership empowered the neobank to expand digital banking services to SMEs, entrepreneurs, and individuals, setting a new benchmark in the Saudi Fintech sector and emerging as the Middle East’s answer to Monzo.

Built a comprehensive design system and design flows to ensure a consistent and intuitive interface, ready for a timely release.

Implemented and integrated the Nafath Saudi Arabia system, a national digital identity management platform, to ensure secure verification and authentication for users.

Utilized the Mada payments system to facilitate secure and efficient electronic transactions across Saudi Arabia, ensuring widespread availability of banking services.

Added Cortex transaction processing system to multiple card types, including credit, debit, and prepaid cards, increasing user confidence and expanding banking capabilities.

Leveraged Mambu cloud-native core banking platform to support a range of banking products and services, enabling the client to innovate quickly and efficiently.

Deployed Flowable to design, automate, and optimize business processes, boosting operational efficiency, compliance, and delivery.

Adopted Micronaut Framework for developing microservices and serverless applications, enabling the client to improve application performance with fast startup times and low memory footprint.

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