Definition
Yapily is a British fintech founded in London in 2017 by Stefano Vaccino, positioned as the purest API-first, "headless" player in European Open Banking.
It provides aggregation (AIS) and payment initiation (PIS) APIs across 19 EEA+UK countries, with no user interface of its own. That is its big difference from Tink, TrueLayer or Bridge: Yapily delivers only the APIs and leaves its customers (fintechs, banks, ERPs, SaaS) to build their own UX — an approach that appeals to tech-savvy players wanting to keep control.
History
- 2017 — founded by Stefano Vaccino in London.
- 2019 — $5.4m Series A.
- 2021 — $51m Series B (Sapphire Ventures).
- 2022 — acquisition of finAPI (a long-standing German Open Banking player), with reinforced DE coverage.
- 2023-2025 — a renewed focus on profitability, large-account partnerships.
Offering
- AIS API: account aggregation across 19 countries, headless, with refresh webhooks.
- PIS API: SCT and SCT Inst initiation, a customisable Pay by Bank flow.
- Identity Verification: verification using Open Banking data.
- VRP (UK): support for Variable Recurring Payments, like TrueLayer.
API-first differentiation
Yapily explicitly presents itself as "Embedded Open Banking": Open Banking integrated into the customer's product, with no visible overlay, 100% REST API, with polished developer documentation. A strategy opposite to that of Tink or TrueLayer, who push their own pre-built journeys.
Coverage
Very strong in the UK, Ireland and Germany (the finAPI legacy), strong in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Austria, and growing elsewhere — 19 countries in total, ~1,800 banks.
Business model
Pricing per API call or per connected user, with no minimum for startups, and negotiated rates at the enterprise level.
Customers
American Express (aggregating other accounts in the AmEx app), Volt.io (the underlying technical rail for Pay by Bank), Intuit QuickBooks (EU accounting synchronisation), GoCardless, Vodeno (Belgian BaaS) and crypto exchanges (funding via Pay by Bank).
Yapily vs competitors
| Player | Origin | UI | Differentiation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yapily (UK) | London | None (headless) | Pure API, embedded |
| Tink (SE/Visa) | Stockholm | Optional UI SDK | Max EU coverage |
| TrueLayer (UK) | London | Strong UI SDK | Consumer Pay by Bank |
| Bridge (FR) | Paris | Journey UI | FR + EU |
| Plaid (US) | San Francisco | Plaid Link UI | US standard |
Yapily is often a second or third choice, but strongly preferred by players with mature tech teams who want to keep control of the UX.
The finAPI acquisition
In 2022, Yapily acquired finAPI (Munich), one of the oldest German Open Banking players (founded in 2008), which strengthens its DE coverage (Sparkassen, regional banks) and combines its UK strength with finAPI's in the DACH region.
What Yapily is not
- Not a bank: AISP + PISP only.
- Not a consumer brand: no consumer app.
- Not a PFM: no analytics (categorisation, scoring), left to the customer.
- Not a wallet, nor a card PSP: transfers only.
Within the PSD2 / Open Finance ecosystem
Yapily is a central headless API platform under PSD2 (19 countries), is preparing the extension to FIDA (savings, credit, insurance), is integrating VoP, and is positioning itself as infrastructure for players building Open Finance products.
Real-world examples
- AmEx: aggregating Open Banking accounts in the AmEx app.
- Volt.io: a merchant Pay by Bank startup that builds the UI, with Yapily providing the bank API.
- Intuit: QuickBooks EU syncs banks via Yapily.
- Coverage: 19 countries with a single API — a record for covered EU fragmentation.
- Funding: ~$70m since inception; a headcount of around 200 people.
- Strength: integration in a matter of days with no imposed UI SDK — a model appreciated in fintech and B2B SaaS.
- Plaid comparison: by its API-first positioning, Yapily is the "Plaid of Europe", in ongoing competition with Tink, which is better resourced on the marketing side.