VILNIUS, Lithuania — Sept. 18, 2026
Executive Summary
SDK.finance has announced an expanded focus for its core platform, targeting retailers, marketplaces and telecom operators seeking to build native financial products. The company stated that its ready-made wallet and payments infrastructure can help established consumer brands integrate payments, wallets and financial workflows into existing experiences, with more than 650 APIs and deployment available through SaaS or source-code licensing.
Announcement Overview
SDK.finance stated that its platform expansion is aimed specifically at non-financial consumer brands that already have established customer relationships and transaction flows. The company is positioning its infrastructure for businesses seeking to introduce native financial products without developing the underlying wallet and payment software entirely from scratch. The platform provides more than 650 APIs for integration and can be used through SaaS or licensed source code. SDK.finance also highlighted retail, marketplaces and telecom as three industries where financial products have already become part of established consumer or business experiences, while emphasizing that software alone does not provide regulatory authorization.
Key Announcement Details
- Announcement Type: Strategic Platform Expansion
- Announcing Entity: SDK.finance
- Announcement Date: September 18, 2026
- Dateline: VILNIUS, Lithuania
- Primary Development: Expanded platform focus for non-financial consumer brands
- Target Industries: Retail, Marketplaces, Telecom
- Core Offering: Ready-made wallet and payment infrastructure
- Platform APIs: 650+
- Delivery Models: SaaS or Source-Code Licensing
- Key Capability: Native financial products
- Strategic Focus: Payments and wallets within existing customer experiences
- Executive: Pavlo Sidelov, CEO
- Regulatory Position: Software does not provide financial-services authorization
- Key Consideration: Licensing and regulated financial partnerships may be required
- Company Role: Software infrastructure provider
- Primary Use Cases: Refunds, balances, payouts, top-ups and settlements
SDK.finance Expands Platform Focus
SDK.finance, a provider of ready-made software foundations for modern wallets and payments, stated that it is strategically expanding the availability of its core platform to specifically target non-financial consumer brands.
The company is focusing on three principal groups:
- Retailers
- Marketplaces
- Telecom operators
SDK.finance stated that these established consumer businesses can use its infrastructure to develop native financial products, including payments and wallets, within experiences customers already use.
The company is positioning this expansion around its view that established consumer brands could play a significant role in the next phase of financial-product development because they already have customers, transactions and recurring reasons for consumers to interact with their platforms.
A Familiar Screen, an Unfamiliar System
SDK.finance stated that a branded wallet may appear to consumers as another screen within an application, while the underlying system requires considerably more infrastructure.
According to the company’s platform documentation, the technology behind such an experience needs to:
- Track customer balances
- Process payments and transfers as they occur
- Provide support teams with tools to investigate payment issues
- Connect with existing checkout or billing systems
- Work with banks or payment providers responsible for moving funds
The company stated that developing these capabilities internally can represent a substantial engineering undertaking, particularly for businesses whose primary operations are outside financial technology.
SDK.finance provides a ready-made software foundation that businesses can adapt to their own brands and business models. Its platform offers more than 650 APIs for connecting with existing systems.
Businesses can use the platform through:
- SaaS deployment
- Source-code licensing, providing greater control over customization and deployment
SDK.finance stated that using a ready-made foundation does not remove the need for integration, testing and daily operations, but gives businesses a practical starting point for building wallet and payment capabilities.
Three Industries Driving the Transition
SDK.finance highlighted publicly available examples from retail, marketplaces and telecom to illustrate the types of financial products already being integrated by non-financial businesses.
Retail
For retailers, SDK.finance stated that wallet functionality can support refunds, stored balances and checkout experiences.
The company cited Starbucks as an example of a retailer whose customers use stored-value cards and its app to prepay for future purchases.
According to Starbucks’ fiscal 2025 annual report, the combined balance-sheet line for stored-value card liability and the current portion of deferred revenue was approximately $1.84 billion.
Marketplaces
For marketplaces and commerce platforms, SDK.finance stated that financial functionality can center on seller funds, deductions and payouts.
The company cited Shopify as a commerce platform that also provides financial products to merchants. Shopify’s fourth-quarter 2025 results reported 37% growth in gross payments volume for the year.
SDK.finance stated that bringing sales, fees and payouts into the same platform can give merchants a clearer view of how money moves through their businesses.
Telecom
For telecom operators, SDK.finance stated that a wallet can become closely connected to the customer account.
The company cited M-PESA, operated by Safaricom in Kenya, as an example. In the year ended March 31, 2025, M-PESA accounted for 44.2% of Safaricom’s service revenue in Kenya, according to the figures cited by SDK.finance.
The company noted that M-PESA was developed over many years, illustrating that wallet infrastructure can represent an established financial capability rather than a short-term product initiative.
SDK.finance stated that these examples demonstrate the broader market model its software is designed to support and point to the role that ready-made platforms and arrangements with licensed financial partners can play.
Software Is Not Permission
SDK.finance stated that software does not itself authorize a business to provide regulated financial services.
Depending on the jurisdiction, functionality and business model, activities such as holding customer funds, issuing electronic money or executing payments may require:
- The company’s own license
- An arrangement with a licensed financial institution
- Both, depending on the applicable requirements
The company also noted that a closed-loop gift balance and an account capable of sending money to third parties can have different regulatory treatment.
SDK.finance stated that working with a licensed partner does not eliminate regulatory responsibilities. Businesses and financial partners must establish applicable responsibilities concerning:
- Safeguarding funds
- Compliance
- Complaints
- Operational controls
The company emphasized that SDK.finance supplies software and is not a bank, licensed payment institution or source of regulatory approval.
Financial Products Grow Where the Relationship Already Exists
Pavlo Sidelov, CEO at SDK.finance, said the question for businesses considering embedded financial capabilities is narrower than whether they should become fintech companies.
“The useful question for a retailer, marketplace, or operator is not whether to become a fintech. It is narrower than that,”
Sidelov continued:
“Money already moves through the business in the form of refunds, payouts, top-ups, and settlements. Whether it is worth bringing part of that inside is a judgment about the customer relationship first and the technology second. For plenty of companies, the honest answer will be no. But where the answer is yes, the opportunity belongs to companies that already own the customer relationship, which is exactly who our software is built to serve.”
Earlier, Sidelov described the role of existing customer relationships and transaction flows in the company’s expanded platform focus.
“Retailers, marketplaces, and telecom operators already have the customers. Now they can bring payments and wallets into the same experience using our infrastructure,”
He illustrated the concept with a retail refund scenario:
“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.”
SDK.finance stated that its expanded focus is built around businesses that already have an established customer relationship and financial transaction flow, while its software provides the underlying wallet and payments infrastructure.
About SDK.finance
SDK.finance provides ready-made software foundations for modern wallets and payments, with infrastructure designed for businesses building financial capabilities into their existing products and customer experiences.
- Platform: Modern wallet and payment software
- Integration: More than 650 APIs
- Deployment: SaaS or source-code licensing
- Target businesses: Retailers, marketplaces and telecom operators
- Capabilities: Wallets, payments, balances, transfers, reporting and related financial workflows
The company stated that its software supports businesses while regulatory authorization remains the responsibility of the relevant business and licensed financial partners.
Media Contact
For additional information, visit sdk.finance.
Source Attribution
Source: Company announcement
