Director of Business Development, Advapay
Hamid Najafi is Director of Business Development at Advapay, based in Amsterdam. He works with fintechs, neobanks, payment companies, and financial technology providers on core banking software, digital wallets, cross-border payments, crypto-fiat infrastructure, and Banking-as-a-Service. His work connects commercial requirements with white-label platforms, APIs, payment rails, regulated providers, and the implementation decisions required to bring financial products to market.
Hamid joined Advapay in 2024 as Director of Partnerships before moving into his current business development role. His earlier career spans fintech product development, business analysis, partner relationships, and commercial development at organizations including Capgemini, TRASTRA, EXMO, Diceus, and Dukascopy Bank. This background gives him experience across both the product and partnership sides of financial technology, including SWIFT payments, alternative payment systems, digital banking applications, and API-driven infrastructure.
As an author, Hamid writes about Banking-as-a-Service operating models, core banking technology, payment and banking partnerships, provider selection, and fintech launch strategy. His perspective focuses on the practical questions beneath an integration: which capabilities a business needs, how responsibilities should be divided between the fintech and regulated provider, and how technology and commercial partnerships must work together for a successful launch.
A Tuesday Tech article by Hamid Najafi explaining why banking access stalls more fintech launches than licensing does, why single-provider dependence is the most underpriced concentration risk, and how fintech teams can de-risk banking access by treating it as a parallel workstream from day one.
A Tuesday Tech article by Hamid Najafi explaining how fintechs get IBANs, reach SEPA and SWIFT, choose between direct participation and BaaS partner access, and operate the back-office for multi-IBAN issuance, payment routing, and reconciliation.
A Tuesday Tech guide by Hamid Najafi explaining how Banking-as-a-Service works, how fintechs use BaaS providers, how responsibilities are divided, and how partner infrastructure connects to core banking technology.