Galileo’s Cole Wilkes: ‘With Instant, we wanted to see how quickly we could go from zero to cards-in-hand’
- Galileo powers the debit cards for many of today's top fintech firms.
- The company recently launched Instant, expanding its market into non-financial companies that want to launch a card.
A few weeks back, payments API firm, Galileo launched Instant, which dramatically simplifies and accelerates launching a debit card — taking what can be a multi-month process and turning it into a couple of weeks. Galileo claims it had hundreds of companies signed up for a beta when it went live and the interest is still very strong.
Galileo Managing Director Cole Wilkes joins us on the podcast today to talk more about Instant.
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The following excerpts were edited for clarity.
Building Instant
Instant is a simple solution for businesses to create their own debit cards and bank accounts. We set out to lower the barrier to entry for creating cards and accounts, and delivering card and accounts payments solutions. It’s not just limited to fintech — it’s particularly useful for new businesses, too. Now, businesses outside of finance have an easier way of delivering financial products.
The alternatives
Instant’s counterpart is called Galileo Pro. That’s what Galileo’s done for the past 20 years. Traditionally in card issuing, there are a number of different roles to be played — you’ve got KYC, card fulfillment, processing, program management, issuing banks and associations. All these companies need to work to piece together a card program.
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