A Chat with Jovi Overo, MD BaaS at Global FinTech Company: Unlimint

Founded in 2009, by our visionary CEO and Stanford School of Business alumni, Kirill Evstratov, Unlimint is a global fintech company with 16 offices all over the world and more than 400 employees, that offers a large portfolio of financial services – from acquiring to banking and banking as a service.

Our mission is to be “ready for tomorrow” and to provide our customers with a sense of stability in the everchanging financial landscape and an opportunity to be prepared for whatever the tomorrow of business brings their way, so that while others observe, they can already take an advantage.
 
 

 

How has the company evolved during the pandemic?

 
Back in 2020, we actually went through a massive rebranding, during which we didn’t just change our name from Cardpay to Unlimint, but also completely changed the look of our brand. The decision was based on the fact that with time we outgrew the old brand and it no longer represented who we are as a company and what we offer to our merchants.

In the past two years we also focused on strengthening our offering so that we could support our customers more. We welcomed installments as a payment service, an essential feature for the LatAm region, became the first direct member of Russia’s payment system Mir, to offer them as a payment option across the four continents of Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America, signed an agreement with Discover, furthering our payment options, and announced the launch of a new product division.
 

What are you responsible for in the company and what has your professional journey been like so far?

 
I am responsible for driving Unlimint’s BaaS API solution and activities include defining and driving GTM strategies, segmentation strategies, value proposition and business development in key verticals including, fintechs, high growth tech companies, banks and financial service firms.

My professional journey has always been involved in financial services, coming up to almost 18 years and the last 7 years in fintech and payments, specifically Banking as a Service and Lending as a Service. This has been across a variety of companies and industries to create strategic digital payments advantages.
 

What is Unlimint’s BaaS solution and why is it different from other similar solutions out there?

 
Unlimint’s BaaS API solution enables companies to deliver innovative payment and account solutions, simply, seamlessly and conveniently. Whether you are launching your own branded card program, opening accounts for your customers or need new and innovative payment solutions, Unlimint takes the cost, risk, and complexity out of adding financial services capabilities so businesses can focus on their core business.

Our solutions are different because we truly understand our clients’ problems. We are a business founded by innovators for innovators so we know their challenges. Our solution recognizes that businesses that approach us will be at different levels of maturity and at different phases of their development.

Launching a BaaS solution, business will face common challenges like geographical limitations, flexibility and configuration gaps. Unlimint’s solution aims to allow businesses to leverage the company’s global capabilities and go cross border, operate at speed and flexibility without incurring more costs or additional work, and choose from a wide range of configurations. We believe the client should be front and center and should see the BaaS provider less. What we offer is straightforward and hassle free.
 

What do you think is the future of BaaS? How will it affect the industry in the years to come?

 
I love the concept of self-driving cars. What Tesla brings to the innovation table (EV, self-driving cars) is what BaaS and the innovative wave of Blockchain, Web 3 and DeFi will bring to customers. A hyper-personalized service and the concept of self-driving money.

A self-driving car (in a utopian world) knows who you are, your driving style, the best route to take, diverts to the optimal route if traffic is bad, warns you if there’s an accident further down the road that you can’t see, it gives you an optimal driving experience.

Self-driving money lets you know about your upcoming bills and warns you if you might miss them. It makes payments in the cheapest, most efficient way. It lets you have multiple banking relations, financial products and services and moves your money where it is best served in response to changes in your circumstance. The optimal banking experience.
 

What can we hope to see from Unlimint in the future?

 
What sets our team apart from our competitors is the depth of our solution and our constant strive for finding new ways to upscale and innovate it. This is why you can definitely expect us to keep on working on new features and exploring new technological advancements.