Neobank Volt, LAB3, and Microsoft partner to build “Volt 2.0”

Microsoft today announced a strategic partnership with Australia’s first neobank, Volt, to develop “Volt 2.0” – a next-generation Banking as a Service (BaaS) platform, slated for release in 2021.

Volt was also today named the #2 place to work in Australia in the LinkedIn best places to work.

Volt 2.0 will be the digital platform that allows Volt’s approved business partners to natively provide full-service banking and payments to their own clients and will act as an extension of pre-existing Volt partnerships with a number of household brands. 

Volt will work with Microsoft and LAB3 engineers in Australia and overseas, to develop a high performance, scalable, and trusted BaaS platform with secure data storage and advanced analytics capability based on cloud computing service Microsoft Azure.

Volt 2.0 will securely support multiple brands and diverse customer types, and deliver unique and valued customer experiences, and allow white-label banking where retailers could offer financial services to customers directly or via their existing loyalty programs.

It will also be able to be leveraged by incumbent banks as a platform to help them accelerate the deployment of future banking services for their customers and overcome the limitations of legacy banking systems.

According to Steve Weston, CEO and founder of Volt, “Volt’s unique platform technology sets us apart from every other neobank in Australia, and positions us for incredible growth well into the future.

“Operating in such a highly regulated industry and with the goal of becoming a sector leader means we need to partner with the best technology companies globally. From the perspective of scaling our platform, Microsoft ticks all the boxes.

“Volt 2.0 will need to have the capability to adapt to the changing market and the evolving needs of our customers and partners, as well as the evolving technologies available in the market. We work with strategic partners that are continuously innovating their products and services, so our industrial-grade banking platform is always cutting-edge.”

Microsoft Azure has the international footprint that would allow Volt to expand globally in the future, and Volt 2.0 will also share the same Azure digital foundations as Volt’s existing retail banking system which uses the Temenos T24 core banking solution hosted in Azure.

Steven Worrall, managing director, Microsoft Australia said, “Our strategic partnership with Volt is unique in the Australian neobank sector, and brings the best of our technology, combined engineering skills, and global banking know-how to bear. This lays the foundation for a new generation of financial services and customer experiences.

“Volt 2.0 has the potential to radically reshape financial services in Australia and globally. Microsoft Azure has been designed with resilience, scalability, security and trust front and centre, making it the natural platform for this sort of mission-critical and transformative application.”

The key to Volt’s differentiated experience is data, for both its direct customers and the customers of its BaaS partners. Microsoft Azure has the proven ability to support high availability machine learning and real-time notifications to deliver new forms of customer services and also perform sub-second card transactions.

Chris Cook, LAB3 CEO said, “This has been a true collaboration by all, sharing expertise and engineering skills to re-imagine banking. LAB3 brings a wealth of experience in deploying Microsoft Cloud technologies in highly regulated industries.

Our automated modular assets and advanced DevOp’s capabilities will enable Volt 2.0 to be delivered at speed in a secure and scalable manner. This will provide Volt Bank with the innovation and agility to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.

By basing Volt 2.0 on Microsoft Azure, Volt Bank has access to an ever-expanding array of Azure services, including machine learning and artificial intelligence.”

Volt remains in beta status with its waitlist clients, with a public launch pending in coming months.