Joy Abisaab, Co-founder & CEO, Mast
Today we're meeting Joy Joseph Abisaab, the Co-founder and CEO of Mast, the fully configurable, cloud-native loan origination platform that accelerates the entire loan origination process.
Over to you Joy. My questions are in bold.
Who are you and what's your background?
I started my career in investment management as an equities and derivatives trader and worked my way through the industry to become the co-global head of trading at Amber Capital, the ex-risk arbitrage proprietary trading desk of Societe Generale in New York.
During my time at Amber, I rose from a trainee to co-heading the global trading desk that span across offices in Milan, London and New York, which was a demanding but exciting role and equipped me with many of the skills I use today to run Mast.
Perhaps also very relevant to the startup world prior to Mast, is my software development background with which I co-founded a venture-backed tech start-up before co-founding Mast.
What is your job title and what are your general responsibilities?
I am the co-founder and CEO at Mast, which involves everything and anything! I am responsible for the overall strategic direction, values and vision of Mast. As CEO, I own the products and oversee all aspects of the business, including operations, finance, sales, and marketing.
I also work to secure funding, build partnerships, and foster a strong company culture to ensure growth and success in a competitive market. As many other CEOs will attest, no day is ever the same, you really do have to be able to wear a number of different hats and be agile to switch between them, something my trading career prepared me really for.
Can you give us an overview of your business?
In a nutshell, Mast aims to speed up the mortgage origination process with a fully configurable platform, saving lenders time and costs and enabling borrowers to receive offers much faster.
We are a cloud-native loan origination technology infrastructure to help lenders increase capacity, reduce costs and strengthen operational controls. Our main differentiation is speed, agility and experience. We are one of the only no-code products that allow lenders to operate more efficiently, react faster to changing market conditions, and focus on offering the best service possible. We aim to provide greater clarity and certainty for borrowers, by partnering with lenders and enabling them to make better decisions, faster, taking stress out of the process.
Tell us how you are funded?
Mainly through bootstrap and Angel investors, although Mast was born out of the Antler VC programme which provided a small amount of funding. We have some big business names and leaders backing us and it’s been a blessing to have a huge amount of experience we can get advice from.
The Antler VC programme helps founders build and scale companies faster with their global community of founders and access to talent, expert advisors and capital around the world. It was a really great way to meet like minded entrepreneurs, especially my co-founders as we all share the same values and drive to solve our mission.
What’s the origin story? Why did you start the company? To solve what problems?
Robert, Henry and myself all met at Antler, a startup accelerator programme. Rob had previously worked in the Mortgage team at Barclays and saw how painfully slow, old fashioned and arduous the current mortgage lending process was and wanted to bring about a solution.
Whilst Henry (extensive engineering experience) and I also recognised the value of a product in this market, we combined forces to create what is now Mast. We all recognised that the mortgage industry was an outdated and painful market to operate in and that it was approaching the end of 20-30 year cycle, in which the option to increase operational velocity was not available to lenders due to clunky incumbent systems which is where we got the idea for Mast.
We started by building a broker portal and lending criteria engine which helps brokers receive real time feedback on the quality of the mortgage packaging and helps lenders receive perfectly packaged mortgage applications every time which speeds up the process. Now we have been operating for over three years and have delivered successfully on complex loan origination implementations as we continue to address the need for nimble and customisable platforms in the market.
I’d say we are different to other players in the industry for three main reasons; firstly, we are the first truly live cloud-native loan origination software startup to penetrate the UK first-charge mortgage market & Building Society sector in a very long time. Secondly, our agile way of working means that we have engineering velocity and can be lean and fast to implement; we solve problems quickly and devise solutions without deliberation. Finally, our usage-based pricing model means we are partners to our clients and share both the upside and downside, so we are incentivised in building the best technology to ensure the success of our clients.
Who are your target customers? What’s your revenue model?
On large, our clients are sophisticated institutions e.g. banks / building societies. Linking to the adage of David and Goliath, currently we tend to support the ‘Davids’ get access to world-class technology that they didn’t have access to because it was too expensive (e.g. smaller building societies and specialist lenders).
Our main goal is to make lender’s lives easier by streamlining the entire mortgage loan origination process, making it faster and easily configurable in one central place. The clients we have worked with so far have been thrilled by what Mast has to offer, below we have some feedback from clients.
“Our partnership with Mast has proven to be hugely valuable to our business and catapulted us into the 21st century. Their technical expertise is second to none and has proven to be a real game-changer, especially when requiring complex lending rules.”
“It is idiot proof, I love that it tells you what you have missed and takes you back to the missing fields, this isn’t the case with most other lenders. I hope other lenders start to adopt this system”.
“What a brilliant, easy to use system. This was my first time using it and I navigated it with ease”.
Our revenue model is very simple. We operate a software-as-a-service which is part licence and part variable so that we are truly aligned with our clients.
If you had a magic wand, what one thing would you change in the banking and/or FinTech sector?
It's a good question and one that I probably have many different answers to, depending on the avenue I chose to go down but I would probably say the velocity of adoption in the legacy banking sector presents a challenge to us.
The speed of adoption at banks and building societies is a significant blocker for fintechs because these traditional financial institutions often have complex legacy systems and regulatory requirements that slow down the integration of new technologies.
Fintechs thrive on innovation and agility, quickly developing solutions that improve efficiency, customer experience, and financial accessibility. However, slow decision-making processes, lengthy approval procedures, and risk-averse cultures within banks and building societies hinder the rapid deployment of fintech innovations.
This delay not only stifles fintech growth but also limits the potential benefits customers could experience from enhanced financial products and services, ultimately affecting the competitive dynamics within the financial industry.
What is your message for the larger players in the Financial Services marketplace?
Embracing innovation and agile partnerships with startups is no longer optional, but essential. In today’s fast-evolving financial services marketplace, your ability to stay competitive depends on how quickly and effectively you can integrate new technologies into your systems.
When selecting a partner or software provider, look beyond the flashy features. Focus on long-term value, scalability, and the team behind the product. Are they truly solving a pain point? Do they have a proven track record of adapting to regulatory changes and evolving market needs? The right partner will not only meet today’s demands but also prepare you for future shifts in the financial landscape.
Differentiating between good and bad software providers comes down to more than price—it’s about understanding how well their solution integrates with your existing systems, their commitment to security and compliance, and their ability to grow alongside your organisation.
Finally, don’t underestimate the importance of transforming your core systems. Legacy infrastructure may seem stable, but it limits your ability to innovate and compete with more nimble, tech-driven companies. Transformation isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about unlocking new opportunities, driving growth, and ensuring your bank remains relevant in a digital-first world.
Where do you get your Financial Services/FinTech industry news from?
FT, WSJ and Sifted are my main port of call for Financial Services or FinTech news, it focuses on the European startup and technology scene. It provides in-depth analysis, news, and insights on emerging companies, funding rounds, and key industry trends across various sectors, including fintech and healthtech.
With interviews and profiles of founders and investors, Sifted offers personal insights into the startup ecosystem's challenges and successes which makes things a bit more real and allows you to get under the bonnet of how people think.
Can you list 3 people you rate from the FinTech and/or Financial Services sector that we should be following on LinkedIn, and why?
Both Simon and Linas are well knowledgeable about the fintech sector in general. Dharmesh is very knowledgeable about the complexity of banking technology.
What FinTech services (and/or apps) do you personally use?
As a consumer, I’m a dedicated user of Wise. They’ve established a strong reputation by seamlessly bridging the gap between a user-friendly payments app and a reliable back-end infrastructure.
Zopa Bank stands out as a top contender, especially when it comes to ISAs. And despite its somewhat outdated UX, Interactive Brokers remains the best platform for investments
What’s the best new FinTech product or service you’ve seen recently?
Vanta: we use Vanta (RegTech not pure FinTech) for all of our Compliance at Mast. Vanta helps us get and stay compliant and also brings our new joiners up to speed on policies and procedures they should know about. It’s more Regtech but it’s a lifesaver!
Airwallex: Airwallex is an excellent choice for businesses seeking fast, secure, and cost-effective global payments. With its robust infrastructure, it simplifies international transactions and empowers businesses to scale seamlessly across borders. It has also combined a lot of accounting/expense features that avoid us using other more expensive services.
Finally, let's talk predictions. What trends do you think are going to define the next few years in the FinTech sector?
Over the past decade, consumer fintech has been the primary growth driver in the fintech sector. We’ve seen the rise of digital payment platforms, challenger banks, and robo-advisers, all of which have revolutionised how consumers interact with financial services. These innovations have focused on front-end solutions that enhance user experience, streamline transactions, and offer new ways for consumers to manage their money. However, as the sector matures, the focus is beginning to shift towards back-end transformation.
In the next few years, I predict that the fintech sector will increasingly concentrate on upgrading and optimising the infrastructure that supports financial services. This shift towards back-end transformation includes enhancing data analytics, improving cybersecurity measures, and upgrading core banking systems to be more agile and responsive to consumer needs. The reason for this shift is twofold: firstly, to accommodate the massive amounts of data generated by the proliferation of consumer-facing fintech applications, and secondly, to integrate these applications more seamlessly with traditional banking systems.
Moreover, we are witnessing a convergence between banks and fintech companies, a trend that will likely define the industry in the coming years. Initially, fintechs emerged as disruptors, positioning themselves in opposition to traditional banks with innovative, user-friendly services. However, as both sectors evolve, the distinction between them is blurring. Banks are increasingly adopting the agile, tech-driven approaches of fintechs, while fintechs recognise the value of the regulatory experience, customer trust, and scale that traditional banks possess.
Over the long run, I believe we will see a merging of these two worlds, with banks and fintechs becoming more alike. This convergence will lead to a new era of financial services where the lines between Fintechs and financial institutions are indistinguishable.
Joy, thank you very much for taking the time to participate!
You can find out more about Joy Joseph Abisaab on LinkedIn and read more about his company Mast at http://www.usemast.com.