Flowe builds one of the first cloud-run digital banks

More than just another bank, Flowe was created with a vision to empower people to live a meaningful and sustainable life in a digital world. In particular, it sought to help the younger generation cultivate healthy financial and lifestyle habits through a cloud-native open banking platform.

“We want to educate customers not only on financial topics like how to manage money, but also on their use of natural resources or being physically active,” said Ivan Mazzoleni, Cultural Energy Orchestrator at Flowe. To get there, Flowe believed that a variety of tools, and a unique combination of modern banking, payment services, and educational content, were pivotal to bringing this vision to life. For example, the app has a “Me/We” section where users can compare daily steps against the community.

Building a multi-functional, lifestyle-oriented digital bank

Establishing Flowe’s unique open-banking platform came with some challenges. First, the concept of a multifunctional, multidisciplinary banking platform was relatively new globally. Flowe would have to build myriad features and systems from scratch, including the digital infrastructure, the back-end system, the accompanying mobile apps, and product features for not just finance but also lifestyle—like one that gives customers the ability to track their environmental impact.

Second, Flowe hoped to run its banking platform fully on the cloud for agility and security. But this was a big challenge, and Flowe needed a partner with the ability to assist with building one of the first banks in the world that runs fully on the cloud. Lastly, Flowe wanted to accomplish these objectives with environmental sustainability and carbon neutrality as priority.

Overcoming COVID-19 challenges to develop a novel banking system

Flowe found what it needed with Microsoft Azure, and it could even quickly achieve carbon-neutral certification by using the Azure Sustainability Calculator. Moreover, its parent company, Banca Mediolanum, had a long history of collaboration and trust established with Microsoft.

Flowe worked with Microsoft to build the open-banking platform we know today from the ground up, making it the first bank globally to run fully on Azure, from the core banking system to the digital onboarding process. Microsoft also assisted Flowe with deploying Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Power Platform to support customer care service.

As this was such a novel concept, the delivery team found it vital to create a cross-functional team with wide-ranging skills and knowledge. Microsoft put together a team that comprised seven different specialist groups who engaged in steady knowledge transfer for the continuous improvement of the system—from infrastructure and security to apps and data management.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 coincided with the first product release. Yet, the team was able to pivot from working in the same physical space to collaborating remotely on Microsoft Teams. Microsoft delivered the project in less than a year and enabled the full launch in June 2020—just 12 months after the project started. The team also worked with Flowe to release new features and improvements every two weeks, allowing Flowe to respond to user feedback and changing needs swiftly.

Comprehensive lifestyle platform impacting the future of finance

Flowe’s open-banking platform and mobile app now provide users with a payment account and features like a virtual debit card and shared expenses. It also provides users with services like CO2 Compensation, which shows the impact of expenses in terms of CO2 emissions and compensates them by planting trees. Other features include Arcadia, a gamification engine to keep users engaged, and Focus, which presents a series of videos to educate users on economic and sustainability topics. The mobile app also encourages users to achieve their financial and lifestyle ambitions through games and targets, where they can set aside money to meet goals and level up with badges.

“With Microsoft Azure, we can quickly review every aspect of all customer data, such as credit card transactions, CO2 impact, or how customers engage with video content in the app,” said Marco Segato, Augmented Intelligence Practitioner at Flowe.

And with the platform built on Azure, Flowe can manage all systems and customer data with ease and ensure utmost security. For instance, Flowe uses Azure to tap into advanced cognitive services for fraud detection.

In the near future, Flowe hopes to expand its AI capabilities to provide users a better onboarding experience and introduce more personal financial management tools for spending analysis and budgeting.