The FIS story: from start-up to leader in banking digitalisation

Interview with FIS Managing Partner Vladimir Zaleski

1. How did the idea of creating FIS come about? Who was the initiator of the project?

The idea of creating FIS came about when I was a 5th year student at NSU and was looking for an opportunity to put my knowledge into practice. My then future wife, working in the IT sphere, suggested to pay attention to small and medium-sized businesses that needed IT infrastructure support and process automation. Together with a friend, a project manager, we decided to try our hand in this direction. I was in charge of finding clients, and he was in charge of resource management. This is how our journey began in 2003. In 2004, Evgeny Kashmensky joined us and took charge of the development.

2. What were the main challenges in launching the company?

How did you cope with technical, organisational and marketing difficulties?

The main challenges we faced were finding clients and funding. We started as a project team with no product and virtually no staff. The main challenge was to avoid a cash gap when we had our first employees. We believed in success and borrowed money against personal commitments, building on our reputation among the university community.
In 2007-2008, with Eugene Kashmensky, we clearly divided our functional roles: I focused on sales and client development, while Eugene focused on organising all production processes within the company and RnD in terms of our technologies and solutions. A stable strategy of responsibility distribution was born: everything "outside" the company is my responsibility; everything "inside" is Eugene's.

3. What were the key moments in the development of the company? What decisions were made to grow the business and expand the product line?

In 2003, FIS received its first major order in the fintech sector, which determined the further vector of business development in the banking industry. One of the key achievements of the company was the creation in 2004-2005 of the first credit front, probably the first in Russia and definitely the first in the CIS countries, for one of the customer banks. In 2007 we developed a collection system - the first product created for a potential sale rather than a project.
In 2008, we started prototyping the first version of our low-code FIS Platform, which became the basis for further scaling. It included a business process editor, data models and interfaces, which allowed us to lower the threshold of entry into development and accelerate the implementation of solutions. The first implementation of the solution on the platform took place in 2011, although it did not go global, locally it was a significant win. In 2013, we undertook a major upgrade of the credit front at one of the banks, which allowed us to develop the solution on the platform and create the first centre of expertise on the customer side. This success, as time will tell, helped organically shape a successful concept for the company going forward.
In 2020, the concept was created and development of an entirely new platform began. In 2022, we attracted the investor KAMA FLOW.

4. How do you assess the role of KAMA FLOW in the development of the company?

The involvement of the investor KAMA FLOW in 2022 was an important milestone in the development of FIS. We pursued several objectives: securing the business, its capitalisation and increasing the valuation of the company. KAMA FLOW's support helped to establish FIS as a transparent and market-friendly business with a corporate governance structure and a broad pool of customers. The financial cushion obtained thanks to the investor allowed for a more intensive development of our know-how.

5. How do you see the development of the company in the coming years?

In the coming years, we plan to increase our presence in the real sector of the economy and transform from a design and product company into a product company with a developed partner network. We aim to bring to the market solutions that we hope will revolutionise the development of large enterprise systems. These steps will allow us to strengthen our position and continue to lead in the digitalisation of the banking business.