Bridging Business and Technology
Fractional CTO and technology advisory for companies that need senior technical leadership without a full-time hire.
I set the technology strategy and deliver it hands-on — from regulated fintech to data platforms.
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Proof
Building a regulated fintech from scratch
- Co-founded a licensed Australian and Canadian fintech and built the technology from nothing — architecture, delivery, security, infrastructure, design and support.
- Two live products in two countries: cross-border remittance and a Visa debit card, wallet and FX.
- Designed and built scalable integrations — payout rails, remittance and card/bank acquiring in Australia and Canada.
- Designed and ran the full regulated stack in cloud-native environment, with cross-region disaster recovery and two-jurisdiction data residency.
Regulation and compliance
- Built the compliance backbone for two regulators — AFSL and AUSTRAC (Australia), MSB and FINTRAC (Canada).
- Real-time transaction monitoring, identity verification, sanctions and AML screening, immutable audit trails, and privacy obligations — audit- and due-diligence-ready.
Technical delivery
- 20+ years in software, delivering for BankWest, BHP, RWWA, HBF, Telstra and Vix Technology.
- Led high-risk core banking integration to production at BankWest — a first BNPL among Australian banks.
- Built a transactional betting platform for RWWA handling multi-million-dollar monthly turnover, serving 55,000 active users.
AI and modern engineering
- Rolled out Claude Code and GitHub Copilot with agentic development workflows — delivery throughput up 3x with flat headcount.
- Built the data pipeline, warehouse and dashboards that put decisions on numbers, not opinion.
Services
CTO — Full or fractional
Scaling businesses often face the challenge of leadership gaps, especially in the technological arena.
Our CTO-on-Hire service bridges this gap, providing you with seasoned technology leaders who bring a wealth of experience and strategic insights to propel your business forward.
AI & Agentic Engineering
AI-assisted development is changing what a small engineering team can ship, but only when it's rolled out deliberately.
We assess your engineering workflow and implement AI-assisted development practices — the same agentic tooling that took our own delivery throughput up 3x with flat headcount.
Technical Due Diligence
Before you invest in or acquire a technology business, you need an honest read on what you're buying.
We assess a target company's architecture, technical debt, security posture and team capability, and give investors and acquirers a clear, practical view of the risk before the deal closes.
FinTech Technology & Compliance
Regulated FinTech products carry technical requirements most software teams have never had to meet.
We design and build the technology stack for licensed financial products — payments, cards, wallets and FX — alongside the compliance backbone regulators expect: AFSL/AUSTRAC and MSB/FINTRAC-ready monitoring, screening and audit trails.
Digital Strategy
In the digital age, a robust and well-crafted strategy is your key to success.
We are experts to guide your business through the process of digital era, helping you forge a digital pathway that aligns with your business objectives and drives unprecedented growth.
Bespoke Solutions
Your business is unique, and your technology solutions should be too.
At Raffina, we specialise in creating bespoke solutions that address your specific challenges and opportunities. From custom software development to tailored SaaS, we bring your unique vision to life.
Principal Consultant: Mo Zaatar
My strongest skill is bridging business and technology — I speak both languages well. I sit in a board meeting on strategy and funding, then ship code with the team the same week.
I work best where the constraints are real: regulation, a small budget, a small team, and a board that wants straight answers. I turn those into working architecture and shipped product, on time and on budget — not a slide deck.
Over 20+ years I've delivered for start-ups and for corporate giants like banks, across Australia, Canada and the Middle East. I'm currently co-founder and CTO of Bless Payments.