Thought Machine
Also a provider — view Thought Machine’s profile →“Can a cloud-native, smart-contract-based core banking platform displace decades-old mainframe cores at tier-one global banks?”
Founded2014
HQLondon, United Kingdom
FoundersPaul Taylor
Total raised$500M+
Latest roundSeries C, 2021
Valuation$1B+ (unicorn, 2021)
IndustryInfrastructure / Core Banking
The story
Founded 2014 by ex-Google engineer Paul Taylor to 'eradicate legacy technology' from banking. Built Vault Core, a cloud-native core banking platform using smart contracts for product configuration. Has consistently sold to tier-one banks (Lloyds, SEB, Standard Chartered, JPMorgan) rather than challenger banks alone, and extended into payments (Vault Payments) to broaden wallet share within incumbent bank stacks.
Product timeline
2014
Founded in London by ex-Google engineer Paul Taylor· founding
2018
Lloyds Banking Group partnership and Series A investment· partnership
2019
Opened Asia Pacific office in Singapore; SEB launched UNQUO on Vault Core· expansion
2020
Joined Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN); raised $125M Series B· funding
2021
Reached unicorn status with $200M Series C· funding
2024
Expanded Mastercard partnership for core banking + payments integration· partnership
2025
Named Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Retail Core Banking Systems· recognition
The stack
8 layers disclosed in Thought Machine’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Visa DPS (partner)
Card issuing
in the full report
Card network
in the full report
Ledger
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
Open banking
in the full report
Unified APIs
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
10 more providers across 7 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.