What is Unlimit BaaS?
Unlimit BaaS is a banking as a service API solution that allows business, brands and companies to imbed our financial product into their offering to offer it to their customers. Our end goal is to offer our clients the possibility to launch a global BaaS offering with only one provider. We want our clients to be able to launch a global solution, without the different strings of various providers. Each country has its own jurisdiction and rules – having one provider who spans globally is an incredible advancement. Our flexible pricing, expertise, superior technology can be present internationally. Unlimit BaaS is the financial product that comes from one provider, one contract, one solution.
How long have you been in the industry?
I have been in the fintech industry for almost 8 years specifically in, Banking as a Service and, Lending as a Service, where I have been helping to deliver payment solutions to businesses and brands. BaaS and LaaS provide organisations with embedded financial offerings, banking, lending, etc. into their core business. Prior to that, I spent 10 years in financial services as a cofounder for a trading boutique.
My love of fintech, payments and BaaS really blossomed in 2014 when I completed my MBA at Imperial College. As part of my final project, myself and three business school colleagues founded a start-up called Keep It which automated charitable donations. This business proposition was my lightbulb moment where I began questioning how easily we can embed a financial product into our business proposition. Back in 2014 that wasn’t so easy because you had to speak to multiple card schemes, multiple providers, and reputable bodies. The need became clear for an innovative fintech solution with the right licenses and services to be plugged into a business; however now we see that these solutions are ubiquitous.
What did you study?
I completed my undergraduate degree in psychology because I had an interest in people and how they react with their environment and with each other. It gave me the opportunity to build a rapport with people and build on my skills. After this I then completed a conversion course for my graduate diploma in law, but I wasn’t successful in getting a training contract with the establishments I wanted to. I wanted to become a trader and start my own company, so to do this I completed various regulatory qualifications to become an approved person with the FCA. After 9 years in financial services, I took a sabbatical to study my MBA which put me on my path to where I am now!
Tell us about your time at Unlimit?
Having joined in September 2021, it has been an incredible rollercoaster, bearing so much reward. At the start I was building a product department from scratch, covering all areas from sales, commercial, marketing, etc. In a year we have delivered a product, which is incredible and we as an organisation can be proud of that.
With the launch of our BaaS solution, the lead up to it was like being in a pressure cooker environment with colleagues who are continually trying to do their best. And the great thing about that is the culture and community we’ve formed in working together, despite the fact we turned it around in such an unheard-of space of time. The relationships we’ve built are second to none, because on the hardest days, because they have been there in the foxhole with me. So, my time at Unlimit has been filled with learnings and experiences that I am proud of.
What’s the favourite part of your job?
Genuinely, I thrive in being able to come into work every day and work with a team that is doing their best, no matter the circumstance. I am inspired by the people around me and being a part of an organisation where the people strive to deliver perfection.
My driving passion and ambition is to build a solution that enables fintechs and creative founders to have an innovative solution that breeds financial inclusion. Having Unlimit BaaS as our product means that we can help the underserved to become served; the underbanked to become banked. This shouldn’t be a solution only applicable to the Western world, but to all. If we can bring this change to help even just 1% of the world, then I will feel that my job has been done right.
Do you have a character who you feel you personify? How do you feel that you relate to that character?
I would most definitely say Don Draper, from the TV show Mad Men. It’s such a controversial statement because at his core, he wasn’t a good person because he was an adulterer, philanderer and didn’t make relationships because he didn’t value them. But this was a façade because he didn’t know who he was and so he created this persona to market himself in the best possible way. That marketing is where I feel he is a pure creative genius that I relate to. But let’s be clear, when I refer to myself as the Don Draper of BaaS, it is without the bad elements and instead focusing on the fact that he was good at recognising what customers wanted, the right emotions, good at marketing goods and services, and creating value. So, when I say the Don Draper of BaaS, it’s because I can recognise a good solution and offering to customers. I believe that it’s important to not only have the technical and functional requirements, but you must have something else to add in and tell a story so that your customers can see value in your product and solution to their business and society as a whole.
What do you envision for Unlimit BaaS in the next 10 years?
Simply put, I see Unlimit BaaS being the dominant player in the banking as a service space. It is the ultimate goal to be synonymous with Apple, Microsoft, Coca Cola, and Google. I have such a big vision for Unlimit BaaS that I would even like to be able to reach as high as the goals of Elon Musk. He commented that he wants to have a colony in Mars, and so I want our product to be the BaaS solution in Mars to facilitate those payments! There’s no dream to big!
Connect with Jovi on LinkedIn.
