Client

FIDO is an Israeli-based FinTech company whose mission is to reshape the way financial services are accessed and provided in developing countries of Africa and Pacific Asia.

Location

Israel, Ghana, Philippines

Industry

FinTech

Partnership period

December 2015 – present

Services

• Legacy system reengineering
• Development of backend system
• Development and implementation of machine learning algorithm for credit decision making
• Android application development and integration
• DevOps Services
• Support & Maintenance

Technologies

RedShift, Python, Amazon Web Services (SQS, SNS, Serverless, Lamdas, ASG, Athena, Data Pipelines, S3, Kinesis, etc) and spark ML,. Android, Java, Spring Boot Framework, Hibernate, NoSqldb, GraphDb, MySql

THE PRODUCT

People living in developing countries often lack a secure and accessible way to get a loan. Local financial institutions are focused on serving informal or semi-formal employment sectors, making it nearly impossible for small lenders to access credit and develop a financial history.

FIDO's solution was to bridge this gap by providing financial services through a convenient online platform.

FIDO's customers can apply for a short-term loan via a specialized mobile app or by visiting one of FIDO's branch offices. They get a credit decision onsite and receive their money within just one day. The loan is available to working professionals, be they employees or self-employed. There's no need for collateral or guarantors. The company asks its clients only for valid ID and a bank account to include them in the system.

FIDO Features

• Utilizing mobile technology to reach clients that are under-served by legacy institutions
• Leveraging alternative data sources to minimize docflow and number of intermediaries for underwriting
• Automating business processes to enhance productivity and reduce expenses.

THE CHALLENGE

FIDO management were striving to renew their legacy software system and aggregate the data they were collecting from multiple sources into one centralized hub. They also needed a sophisticated predictive analytics engine to process incoming data and provide accurate credit determinations.

While they already had a mobile application with basic set of features, they needed to make it compatible with current client demands, requiring a powerful update of functionality and integration with the core system.

FIDO's CTO, Eitan Weisbeker, was looking to hire a software development team, but was debating two different options: building an in-house department or outsourcing offshore and cutting recruitment costs by up to 40%.

Eitan had had a positive experience working with Intersog in the past, so it was decided to set up a development team in Kyiv. The location was chosen based on the well-established flight connections between the Ukrainian and Israeli capitals, as well as having the largest talent pool in the country.

"I was exploring other companies in Ukraine, but eventually came back to Intersog."
Eitan Weisbeker, CTO, FIDO

THE TEAM

One of FIDO's major requirements was the professional excellence of engaged talent. This made the candidate selection process quite intense. While the talent search started in December 2015, the first person wasn’t hired until March 2016.

"It took us 3 months to rake through hundreds of resumes, interview 25 or 30 people and make a decision to hire Andrey (Team Lead). But as I’ve mentioned above, for us quality was always more important than time, so we were OK to have our time to hire longer than expected."
Eitan Weisbeker, CTO, FIDO

At this point, the FIDO team consists of 6 specialists:

• 3 Java Developers
• 2 Android developers
• 1 Data Scientist

THE APPLICATION

The FIDO app was designed to empower clients to apply for a loan on the go. The creators’ main idea was to facilitate the loan process and minimize the amount of user data collected. Thus, the standard workflow consists of just 3 stages:

1. Sign-up and polling. A user enters personal data, verifies ID and bank account, and enters the amount he wants to borrow along with the payback time. The repay amount with all associated fees and interest is calculated immediately, making the deal completely transparent.
2. Aggregation and analysis. As the user confirms the request, it is transferred to FIDO’s server for processing. The system cross-checks all available information about the user and predicts the probability of an approval. Within a few minutes, the client learns whether or not he is eligible for a loan.
3. After getting approved, the user can borrow the requested amount, either directly through the app or through one of FIDO’s offices.

The application runs on Android devices. The first release version was developed within a month and gained significant traction. For the next three months, we were updating the apps’ functionality to present a final fully functional solution. Since then the new versions of the app come out every 2 months.

FIDO TODAY

The partnership between FIDO and Intersog continues and is gaining traction. During 2017, FIDO doubled the company’s client base and the number of loans given, over the past year the same metrics increased fourfold, and, according to forecasts, 2019 will beat this record. Today, over 200,000 people are using FIDO’s services.

Within the cooperation period, FIDO has established a solid presence in Ghana and launched operations in the Philipines. Currently, the company’s management is planning to expand to new regions.

"Communication with Intersog was great. Since I had some specific requirements, the offshore team was able to fully meet them. We have thousands of customers using our upgraded system now."
Eitan Weisbeker, CTO, FIDO