Tyk gives Rubyx the API backbone to scale microfinance globally
Real-time credit approvals
Tyk enables Rubyx to deliver instant loan offers through seamless APIs.
OpenAPI-driven integrations
Standardized API definitions accelerate onboarding for new partners.
Zero downtime
Tyk’s high-availability gateway keeps Rubyx services running continuously.
Region
EMEA
Sector
Banking & Financial Services
Product
Self-Managed
Why Tyk?
Rubyx decided to use Tyk Open Source, which is open and freely available via GitHub. The fact that the gateway was open source was a big part of the appeal, as Rubyx CTO Sitao Zhang recalls:
“Open source means it’s more transparent for us. Sometimes, the code itself is the best documentation, especially when we understand the language of the open source project and can participate in it, like with the Tyk API Gateway. So open source was one very important factor for us.”
Also important to Rubyx was that their API gateway would place nicely with Kubernetes. Sitao explains:
“Tyk has good, native support for Kubernetes. That means it’s very easy for us to deploy and manage the resources with our existing deployment pipelines.”
At a glance
Company
Rubyx is on a mission to address the fundamental challenges of lending in informal economies to entrepreneurs and small businesses
rubyx.io
Key features used
Founded in 2019, Rubyx provides data-driven cloud solutions that are reshaping the lending landscape in developing nations. The company has grown from working exclusively with microfinance institutions to delivering an embedded lending experience, where borrowers can access working capital through platforms that they are already using to grow their business.
Rubyx is using Tyk Open Source to underpin a new approach to microfinance and reduce the credit gap in developing nations.
The problem
Rubyx is using Tyk to provide a classic backend-for-frontend simplification of the frontend, with Kubernetes sitting behind microservices, to enable businesses to embed Rubyx’s services.
In the backend, Rubyx is the orchestrator of services from various different vendors. These include Google Cloud, an open source solution that Rubyx uses to manage its loan bookkeeping and the payment companies that provide the payment services in the Rubyx platform.
“With all these different services and APIs internally and externally, we wanted to provide our clients with a unique gateway to publish these services,” explains Rubyx CTO Sitao.
The role of Tyk
Tyk is providing a uniform gateway into the different services and different vendors in the backend. Rubyx is then using OpenAPI documentation so that users can consume and understand its APIs through its documentation portal.
Rubyx is benefitting from the fact that Tyk doesn’t just make APIs available but also makes them easy to adopt. The fact that Tyk Open Source is free to use also supports the profitability of Rubyx’s socially conscious lending mission.
Using Tyk also means that Rubyx is able to simplify the service that it provides. Rubyx CEO Denis Moniotte explains:
“Initially we were really focused on the AI – that was where we started, and we were excited about that. But very quickly we realised that for the business to really go to the next step, for it to be impactful and deliver results, it wasn’t enough… To capture the instantaneity of the value proposition, the APIs became so important to creating a real lending-as-a-service experience.”
This approach meant that Rubyx could enable its partners to deliver real time offers through their platforms, crediting the relevant amounts into borrowers’ wallets. Denis comments:
“That has been very transformative in our business – it meant we were really able to call ourselves a full lending as a service provider.”
The solution
To meet clients’ needs, the Rubyx team decided that REST APIs were a must-have. The company offers APIs that enable clients to call straight into its components or objects.
Rubyx also offers APIs that allow clients to simply disburse their loans without understanding how the technology works. They can do this using orchestrated APIs that automate processes such as the need to create a cloud, check offers and do different validations. Rubyx takes care of a lot of those steps in the backend as part of the service it provides, so the user just has a simple API that they can use to create or consume a loan.
The future
Rubyx has experimented with using GraphQL internally, but most of its clients are still using REST APIs at present. CTO Sitao observes:
“We are offering REST APIs as standard at first, but we’re thinking about later adding another layer on top of the REST APIs, so we can offer GraphQL – because one of the great advantages of GraphQL is that the API consumer only gets the data they need. This is very useful with clients in Africa who have low bandwidth. It saves a lot of data transactions and data transfer. So that’s something we’re seriously considering for the future. This is one of the reasons we chose the Tyk API Gateway – because Tyk also supports GraphQL.”
For Rubyx, 2022 was all about refining the embedded lending model and working with its first digital platform clients outside of the microfinance space. 2023 is now all about scaling and managing growth in line with managing risk – with Tyk supporting Rubyx to achieve that.
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