Scaling Fintechs, Profitably and Lean — An Interview with Oleg Seitov
2025-09-23
Scaling profitably is the new imperative for fintechs. The old model of “growth-at-all-costs” is giving way to a leaner, more sustainable approach. As xpate becomes the Executive stage partner for this year’s Riga Comm event, its head of finance, Oleg Seitov, will be a keynote speaker. In this interview, he shares how his company is leading the charge by discussing the shift from a “post-growth” model, the importance of real-time infrastructure, and how AI is changing the finance function.
- You started out in analytics at xpate and are now Head of Finance. What has that journey been like?
Beginning in analytics gave me a data-driven perspective that I’ve carried into my role as Head of Finance. Numbers show you where friction is, and if you address it early, you can scale without painful fixes later. That’s why I’ve focused heavily on building the right infrastructure. I helped implement a core banking platform and introduced AI into day-to-day operations to automate reconciliation and reporting. In the first half of 2025 alone, those changes lifted xpate’s EBITDA margin by more than 50 percent.
- You’re passionate about the shift from the ‘post-growth-at-all-costs’ model. How did xpate put this new model into practice when scaling?
The old way of scaling was to keep finance in the background. As volumes went up, companies just hired more people to handle reconciliation and reporting. It kept things moving, but it also added cost and complexity. We chose a different path. From the start, we built finance into the product architecture. Instead of hiring, we put in place a core banking platform that allowed the same small team to handle much larger transaction volumes. That shift let us increase product delivery speed by 20–30 percent without growing the finance team.
- From your experience, how should fintechs think about embedding finance in product development instead of treating it as a back-office function?
Finance should have a seat at the table from day one. For that to be feasible, you need to ask early: how will the money flow, how will it be reconciled, and what regulatory logic must be in place? If you patch those things later, you layer inefficiencies on top of each other. Look at Stripe or Adyen. They built reconciliation and compliance into their platforms, which is what allowed them to scale globally in a sustainable way.
- Real-time infrastructure is a theme you often mention. How does real-time reconciliation and treasury automation change scalability?
It changes everything. With real-time data, you can proactively respond to headwinds. You can give regulators instant evidence instead of waiting for end-of-month reconciliations. And, ultimately, customers trust you more, because what they see in their balance matches what’s in the treasury. Wise’s “real balance sheet” is a good example of how this builds both efficiency and trust.
- One of your areas of expertise is AI. Where do you see the biggest opportunities for it in finance today, and what are the risks?
The biggest opportunities are in taking repetitive work off people’s plates, such as reconciliation, reporting, and fraud monitoring, and in using AI to turn large volumes of financial data into insights you can act on. The risks come when you adopt it without controls. If you hand too much over to AI without oversight, you open yourself up to compliance issues or a drop in service quality. For me, the rule is clear: get on top of AI, or you’re out of business. And that has to happen on two levels: at the company level, where you embed AI into your operations, and at the individual level, where people build the skills to use it. The goal is to automate everything that doesn’t compromise the client experience.
- Regulation is often seen as a blocker in fintech, but you’ve suggested it can actually be an “unblocker.” What do you mean by that?
Regulation is usually talked about as if it slows things down, but in reality, it’s been opening doors. Non-banks now have access to things that were once only available to banks, like direct SEPA access. That’s a big shift because it levels the playing field. And when you’re forced to meet higher standards of transparency or reporting, you often end up running a more efficient business, not just a compliant one.
- What skills do you think the modern CFO or Head of Finance needs to succeed in fintech?
Modern CFOs, especially in fintech, need to be tech-savvy. They should be able to speak the same language as the product team and understand how technology can boost productivity. At the end of the day, finance and technology have to work hand in hand.
- If you were advising a fintech founder today, what would you tell them about scaling profitably?
Don’t leave finance until later. If you ignore it, you don’t just delay reporting; you actually hinder scalability. You end up building manual problems into the business, which eventually show up as higher costs, slower launches, and weaker margins. Building finance into the product and infrastructure from the start is what allows you to grow sustainably.
Join Oleg Seitov on October 10 at the Riga Comm 2025 Fintech Conference, where he will share more about how to build scalable and profitable fintechs (without hiring armies).
About Riga Comm 2025
The 14th Baltic Business Technology Fair and Conference will take place on 9-10 October 2025 in Riga, Latvia. The event is tailored for entrepreneurs in the service and manufacturing sectors, senior executives from government institutions, and cross-functional professionals. This event provides a unique platform to explore cutting-edge digital technologies, gain strategic insights, and forge valuable partnerships with technology providers to drive business growth and innovation.