SDK.finance Targets Non-Financial Brands to Power the Next Wave of Embedded Wallets

SDK.finance has strategically expanded its core platform availability to target non-financial consumer brands, including retailers, marketplaces, and telecom operators. By providing the infrastructure for native financial products, the company aims to enable businesses with established customer bases to integrate wallets and payment flows directly into their existing digital experiences without building ledger systems from scratch.

What was announced

The expansion positions SDK.finance as a provider of ready-made software foundations for brands that handle significant transaction volumes but lack the engineering resources to develop complex financial backends. The platform offers over 650 APIs designed to connect with existing checkout and billing systems, allowing companies to track customer balances and process real-time transfers. Businesses can choose between a SaaS model or licensing the source code for full customization and deployment control.

The strategic shift is underpinned by the observation that major non-financial players are already operating as de facto financial entities. SDK.finance cited Starbucks, which holds approximately $1.84 billion in stored-value card liability and deferred revenue as of its fiscal 2025 report. Similarly, Shopify saw a 37% increase in gross payments volume in its fourth-quarter 2025 results, while Safaricom’s M-PESA accounted for 44.2% of its service revenue in Kenya for the year ending March 31, 2025. These examples illustrate a market where financial products grow where a customer relationship already exists.

The company emphasized that while the software provides the technical capability, it does not grant regulatory permission. Brands must still secure their own licenses or partner with licensed financial institutions to legally hold funds or issue electronic money. This distinction is critical for non-financial brands moving into the space, as regulatory responsibilities for safeguarding funds and compliance remain mandatory regardless of the software vendor used.

"Retailers, marketplaces, and telecom operators already have the customers. Now they can bring payments and wallets into the same experience using our infrastructure," said Pavlo Sidelov, CEO at SDK.finance. "A customer returns a jacket and is offered a choice: wait for the money to go back to the card they paid with, or take it as a balance inside the retailer's own app and spend it on the next order. None of these companies set out to be a bank, but all of them are moving money. That is the prediction worth taking seriously, and the strategic rationale behind our expanded focus: the next wave of consumer financial products may come less from new fintech startups than from businesses that already have the customers, the transactions, and a practical reason to sit closer to the flow of money."

Pavlo Sidelov, CEO at SDK.finance.

The companies involved

SDK.finance is a fintech infrastructure provider that specializes in delivering the software foundations required to build modern payment systems and digital wallets. The company’s primary offering is a highly modular platform that allows businesses to bypass the multi-year development cycles typically associated with building secure, scalable ledgers and transaction processing engines. By offering source code licensing alongside its SaaS delivery model, the firm caters to both early-stage startups and established enterprises that require deep control over their technical stack and data sovereignty.

In the broader fintech ecosystem, SDK.finance occupies a niche between "Banking-as-a-Service" (BaaS) providers and traditional core banking vendors. Unlike BaaS providers that bundle software with a banking license, SDK.finance focuses strictly on the technology layer. This allows its clients to maintain flexibility in choosing their own banking partners or pursuing their own regulatory status. Led by CEO Pavlo Sidelov, the company has positioned itself as a technical enabler for the "embedded finance" trend, where financial services are integrated into non-financial platforms to reduce friction and increase customer lifetime value.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has previously covered the technical evolution of the SDK.finance platform and its efforts to integrate with broader financial ecosystems. In July 2024, the publication reported that SDK.finance Partners With Salt Edge to Boost the Delivery of Open Banking Solutions. That collaboration was designed to enhance the platform’s capabilities by incorporating Salt Edge’s open banking technology, allowing SDK.finance clients to access real-time bank data and initiate payments across a wide network of European financial institutions. This earlier move signaled the company's commitment to ensuring its software foundations could communicate seamlessly with the existing banking infrastructure, a prerequisite for the brand-led financial products it is now targeting.

What this means

This move highlights a significant shift in the fintech power dynamic, moving away from standalone "disruptor" apps toward the "invisible" integration of finance into existing consumer habits. For the industry, this puts immense pressure on traditional retail banks, which risk losing direct touchpoints with consumers as retailers and marketplaces become the primary interface for money management. The challenge for the sector will be navigating the "regulatory gap" that often exists when non-financial brands handle money. As more brands adopt these tools, the industry should expect increased scrutiny on how these "shadow" financial systems manage risk and consumer protection without the traditional oversight of a bank charter.