For years, the promise of neobanques has been played on the surface, licked interfaces, fluid onboarding, rupture communication. But as regulation intensifies and the margins are eroding, a new criterion emerges, which really controls the heart of the system? Finom, qonto, n26 and a few others make the opposite bet of the majority of their predecessors and decided to build everything themselves.
A post-in-law era
The golden age of “UX Banks” is coming to an end, the differentiation by the interface has shown its limits, in particular in the face of the slow iteration induced by dependence on technical partners: core banking outsourced, KYC subcontracted, payments made by third parties. The model works … until the scale or conformity becomes critical.
Finom strategy, reconstructing the infrastructure, brick by brick
Based in Amsterdam, Finish is one of the new actors in this so -called approach infra-native. From its creation in 2020, the startup made the choice to develop His own Core Banking System and to obtain an electronic currency establishment (EMI). This allows him to assemble his account modules, invoicing, payments, changes, and soon credit.
The bet is greedy in capital and rich in complexity, but it offers several advantages, mastery of produced speed, regulatory autonomy, and ultimately higher margins
Qonto made the same strategic turn
Qonto did not stay long in a third -party assembly logic. Since 2019, the French Scale-Up has also been launched the development of its core banking system housewith the ambition to have a more robust, sovereign, and optimized infrastructure for its customer segments (freelancers, VSEs, SMEs).
No more apps above an existing banking layer, these are now institutions that reconstruct the bank itself.
Plug-And-Play solutions losing speed?
The model of fintechs “plug-and-play”, based on turnkey infrastructure like Trezor,, Solaris Or Mambuhas long seduced by the promise to allow a startup to quickly launch its financial offer, without heavy initial investments.
But in a 2025 context marked by a European regulatory tightening, With the arrival of DSP3the rise of The amla (The European anti-whiteness authority), and increased requirements on the traceability of operations, this model shows its limits. Fintechs must now justify a finer mastery of their architecturetheir risk management, and their real -time compliance.
However, Plug-And-Play solutions, thoughts for the launch speed, struggle to respond to these new constraints. Integration times become longbecause each modification must be negotiated with the third -party infrastructure, regulatory dependencies make it difficult to obtain approvals or adaptation to new markets andrigid contracts Do not always allow fine personalization of the service.
What was their strength becomes a brakeespecially for startups in scaling or diversification phase. This is why more and more investors favor so -called fintechs “Full-Stack”which have their own core banking system, their own license, and total control over execution. This model, more expensive in the short term, offer more resilience, product speed, and strategic autonomy.
The back office as a new conquest field
This movement is not going back, testifies to a new maturity phase for the European Fintech. As the actors seek to differentiate themselves beyond marketing and design, the infrastructure becomes a productive active.
A lifting to dig the gap
After raising 92.7 million euros a month ago, Finom raised 115 million euros in series Cled by AVPwith the participation of General Catalyst, Northzone, Cogito Capital and Headline, bearing the total lifted to more than 300 million euros since its creation.
This funding must make it possible to accelerate its expansion in the five European key markets and to continue the internalization of its banking services. Finom plans to reach a million customers by the end of 2026 In five European markets, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and of course the Netherlands.
Finom was created by Andrey Petrov, Oleg Laguta, Konstantin Stiskin and Yakov Novikov, who had previously created Modulbank in Russia.
