Starting from building cutting-edge financial solutions like Mono-bank (a mobile-only bank), to co-founding Revolut, and numerous NFT and Crypto startups, Ukrainians have a strong track record in the FinTech sector. Even when you take a close look at the government bank Privatbank you’ll be amazed by its ease of use and unparalleled functionality.
Apart from creating their own financial products, as the biggest IT outsourcing destination in Europe, Ukraine is often the first choice for outsourcing software engineering for small and medium fintech startups who struggle to find talented developers locally. Let’s see why:
Access to skilled employees
Competition for talent is getting more fierce each year. Based on the open data by LinkedIn on average there are between 3 to 10 applicants for software engineering vacancies for small and medium startups (who haven’t yet gained product market fit and recognition). Which, let's face it, is not a lot.
To compare it for example with our own stats, to fill one position for Radency we review around one hundred candidates and before hiring a developer they often pass our training & certification program. So in a nutshell, it’s a test task, an interview, plus an intensive two-months training program and a separate team that is running these complicated multi-stage processes.
For an outsourcing software development agency, finding and training great engineers is our core competency. But not every early/medium stage startup can afford spending so much effort on finding and vetting software engineers:
Faster availability and delivery
So while recruitment of talented in-house employees is a true challenge, partnering with a software agency that offers dedicated developers gives you access to the vetted talent available to start either immediately or in a couple of weeks.
Fintech is a quite sophisticated niche and it’s more efficient if the developers who are working on the project understand the domain from the start. And unlike hiring in-house, this is very possible when outsourcing to a company that focuses on financial services. As a result, in most cases, the onboarding is quicker and the deliverables are provided from the first days.
Flexibility and scalability
These are very wicked times for entrepreneurs as the level of uncertainty is very high. But eventually, those will seize the wave, who won’t freeze until better times come, but those who will use this turbulent time to build and experiment. And for that you need flexibility when it comes to your team.
One of the greatest things outsourcing offers is the ease to upscale and downscale your team without hurting morale. Depending on your project’s stage, workload and priorities you can ramp up the development team fast and reduce it while, e.i. you need to focus more on your marketing or sales.
Cost-efficiency
When seeing the “cost-efficient” subtitle the first thought might be that outsourcing is cheaper than hiring developers in-house. I’m afraid, for quality outsourcing it’s not always the case as, for example, outsourcers’ rates in Ukraine may be the same as in-house developers salaries. So where is cost-efficiency then?
With a dedicated developer from an outsourcing company, there are no overhead expenses (hardware, payroll taxes, social package expenses). Recruitment expenses alone can be tens of thousand dollars to fill one senior in-house developer role. So when comparing rates and the salary range don’t forget to keep in mind that with outsourcing you can benefit from a lot of features that are already built into the model.
Choosing the right IT vendor can be tricky, though. The first and foremost step in selecting a reliable software development partner is to set clear goals. Before outsourcing FinTech solutions, create an RFP software development (request for proposal) and send it to your shortlisted providers. A well-prepared RFP will allow you to make sure you're getting just what you need from your development team and assist you in finding the right tech partner for building FinTech software for your business.