When a startup wants to offer embedded banking, the usual playbook is clear: pick a Banking-as-a-Service provider, integrate their APIs, and build your own front end. But NoCFO, a Finnish AI-powered accounting platform, took a different route. Instead of building banking from scratch, they partnered with Holvi, a neobank targeting the same customers, and white-labeled the entire banking product.
In this episode of the Embedded Finance Review Podcast, I speak with Teemu Karuluoto, founder and CEO of NoCFO, about why partnering with a neobank made more sense than pursuing a BaaS model. We explore how ICP alignment drove their partnership decision, what it’s like to integrate banking when you don’t have the resources to build everything yourself, and what features you can skip on day one. We also discuss how open banking compares to a direct integration and NoCFO’s plans to bring this model to Germany.
Key Takeaways:
- Why NoCFO chose a neobank partnership over BaaS
- How ICP alignment shaped their decision
- The trade-offs between open banking and direct integration
- NoCFO’s expansion plans for Germany