London and Tallinn-based FinTech MYJAR   has augmented its in-house software development capabilities by nearshoring with partner Godel. The Godel team will deliver engineering skills on MYJAR’s payment related services – including disbursement and collections – from its centre of excellence in Europe.

“Our in-house engineering teams are based in Tallinn in Estonia, but although the country has a deep and concentrated talent pool the demand for software developers far outstrips local supply. As Europe’s rising tech hub, it’s an amazing place to be, but with the growing number of startups being established and prominent global companies opting to run R&D centres there, competition for talent is fierce,” explains Lee Cadman, group chief technology officer, MYJAR.

“Some time ago, we shifted the organisational model of our engineering department to that of small autonomous squads of around six to eight engineers, who are jointly responsible for every aspect of the product development lifecycle. Godel provides us with the ability to simply plug in additional squads as we scale to meet the demands of the business.

“The Godel team will gain more and more responsibility of ownership for payment related projects, working on systems for resiliency and with our service providers to offer our customers more alternative secure online payment options.”

Both organisations will also strive to deliver a closeness between the teams that means there are no Chinese walls and they operate as one extended team across the three locations.

“It’s always a challenge working across geographies and organisations, but ultimately I see the Godel team as an extension of MYJAR – the developers have the same level of technical knowledge and professionalism,” explains Lee Cadman.

“Godel demonstrated it had a good level of experience with FinTech organisations and it had longevity of relationships with some large brand names in the UK that gave us the confidence the teams understood the specific challenges we face – and that the relationship would work.”

Paul Green, chief commercial officer, Godel said: “Godel is carving out a niche for itself with FinTech organisations – it’s undoubtedly a market that must cater for rapid scalability in line with customer demand and must manage compliance issues – we have this experience in spades.

“The fact that MYJAR also has a nearshore development centre of its own in Estonia is another complexity we’re only too happy to work alongside, and since our Godel team isn’t that far away relatively speaking, I think the synergy between both organisations will deliver a lasting relationship.”