“Can an API-native middleware layer help incumbent banks embed the everyday financial workflows SMEs actually need — payments, invoicing, cash flow, and lending referrals — without core-system transformation?”
BankiFi was founded as an API-driven, consent-centric platform to help banks embed financial services into SME daily workflows — starting from open banking and Request to Pay rails. Over time it expanded from a pure open banking middleware into a broader SME banking-as-a-service layer, enabling bank-branded invoicing, cash flow management, and lending referral services. The 2024 Praetura partnership marked a pivot toward embedded lending orchestration, allowing banks to refer SMEs to alternative financiers when they cannot serve them directly. BankiFi positions itself as the infrastructure layer through which banks can monetise SME relationships without building new products from scratch.