Working at Koyo

Who we are

The current system of credit, based on bureau data, is deeply unfair, penalising people who live in lower income areas, people who are new to the country or customers who have used high risk products in the past (such as payday loans). Koyo (www.koyoloans.com) was founded in 2018, on the principle that everyone should have access to affordable credit regardless of where they are from, where they live, or types of credit that have used.

Many seeking credit are charged excessive fees and interest rates for borrowing that cause financial problems, rather than solve them. We’re changing all that.

Koyo uses innovative technology to offer fairly priced credit to millions of UK customers. We’re based in London, with global ambitions. Koyo is backed by leading venture capital funds (the same funds that backed the likes of Revolut, Transferwise and others) and some of the most reputable angel investors in the UK. Join us, and help put an end to predatory financial firms and be part of an exciting and rewarding journey.

Our story so far

In 2016, Thomas, the founder of Koyo moved to the UK and found accessing credit to be difficult if not impossible. This is because his credit history did not follow him from his home country. He realised that having an imperfect credit history affects millions of people who are new to the country, but also people who have failed to build a credit history in the UK more generally. We raised our first round of venture funding in September 2018, a seed round in October 2019 and will raise our series A in the first half of 2021.

What you’ll be doing:

We have a small, highly skilled fully remote technical team led by our experienced CTO. You will join this team in developing the early versions of our lending product, our back office systems and credit decisioning engine. You will be given a lot of ownership, responsibility and freedom. Our tech culture is summarised in two tech blog posts at https://blog.koyoloans.com/tech/koyo-technology-cu... and https://blog.koyoloans.com/tech/koyo-technology-cu...

Our Tech Stack

The backend is primarily in Kotlin using Spring Boot and exposes a REST/JSON API. We use Google pub/sub for async messaging. The front end is a React/Redux webapp.

On the infrastructure side, we are using Docker orchestrated with Kubernetes on GCP. Terraform is used to define the infrastructure as code. Source code and CI/CD is with GitLab. Gitlab is also used to manage the backlog and our light-weight Kanban process.

Downstream, we will build up machine learning to automate the credit decisioning process. This is likely to be developed in Python.

Requirements

• This is a mid-level role and whilst years of experience is often not a good measure it is likely you will have 3-6 years of commercial experience.
• Technical excellence with strong experience of Java or Kotlin (Kotlin experience is not required as long as you are willing to learn).
• A desire to learn about the business and, with limited guidance, develop elegant solutions from high-level requirements. You will not be "spoon fed" detailed user stories.
• Entrepreneurial and excited about working at an early stage startup.
• A bias to doing things well whilst being pragmatigdc. Time to market is key.
• You have a growth mindset: You’re excited to learn new things every day and have a passion to inspire and grow.
• This role is fully remote. Your timezone needs to be within 3 hours of London.\

Benefits

• Competitive salary.
• Equity in the business - you will own a part of the company that you are helping to build.
• Opportunity to shape the strategy and direction in a company with an important mission.
• Working with bright ambitious people who take pride in what they do.

The current system of credit, based on bureau data, is deeply unfair, penalising people who live in lower income areas, people who are new to the country or customers who have used high risk products in the past (such as payday loans).

Koyo was founded in 2018, on the principle that everyone should have access to affordable credit regardless of where they are from, where they live, or types of credit that have used

Many seeking credit are charged excessive fees and interest rates for borrowing that cause financial problems, rather than solve them. We’re changing all that.

Koyo uses innovative technology to offer fairly priced credit to millions of UK customers. We’re based in London, with global ambitions. Koyo is backed by leading venture capital funds (the same funds that backed the likes of Revolut, Transferwise and others) and some of the most reputable angel investors in the UK.

Join us, and help put an end to predatory financial firms and be part of an exciting and rewarding journey.

Our story so far

In 2016, Thomas, the founder of Koyo moved to the UK and found accessing credit to be difficult if not impossible. This is because his credit history did not follow him from his home country. He realised that having an imperfect credit history affects millions of people who are new to the country, but also people who have failed to build a credit history in the UK more generally. In September 2018 we raised our first round of venture funding and have since raised further debt and equity funding from venture capital funds and private investors.

What you'll be doing

You will be our first dedicated financial hire.

• Implement the correct frameworks for best in class financial practices
• Work with the CEO and a small team to execute on an ambitious plan
• Help manage Koyo's multiple debt facilities
• Create loan tapes, cohorts and other financial reports
• Create and execute a process to reconcile across multiple systems
• Manage payroll and benefits
• Take over the management of the financial plan
• Be responsible for loan disbursals
• Prepare monthly management accounts
• Aid in strategic decisions based on financial data and insight

Requirements

• You have had experience working in financial services or lending
• Can be remote but must be familiar with UK accounting standards
• You are a qualified accountant
• Comfortable with the ambiguity and learning curve of a startup
• You will go beyond what is required to contribute to the team
• Alble to communicate financial concepts in a simple and concise way

Benefits

• Competitive salary.
• Equity in the business - you will own a part of the company that you are helping to build.
• Work with a rapidly growing Fintech with an innovative business model
• Opportunity to shape the strategy and direction in a company with an important mission.
• Working with bright ambitious people who take pride in what they do