CleverCards: Powering a Global Payments Launch With Sub-4-Second Authorisations
Since its market debut in 2023, CleverCards has reshaped how more than 10,000 businesses issue instant, configurable Mastercard digital cards, radically improving corporate payment workflows.
Two years earlier, in 2021, CleverCards partnered with Plain Concepts to design and build the core processing infrastructure behind its product. Initially focused on issuing single-use prepaid debit cards through a single provider, the company sought to expand its issuer ecosystem, introduce its own authorisation and settlement capabilities, and enable more advanced real-time transaction checks.
CleverCards also aimed to bring authorisation logic fully in-house, allowing for adaptive rules, custom business logic, and instant decision-making. Plain Concepts was selected due to its longstanding relationship with the CTO and its strong experience in delivering complex fintech and payments solutions.
CleverCards faced the need to build a fast, resilient and highly scalable payments infrastructure capable of supporting multiple card issuers while meeting strict performance and reliability requirements. As demand grew and new use cases emerged, the company needed a partner who could help them unify issuer integrations, centralise real-time authorisation logic and introduce a flexible settlement layer to manage transaction lifecycle events.
To achieve this, CleverCards required a platform that could consistently process authorisation requests in under four seconds, sustain high volumes of concurrent activity, and adapt quickly to new capabilities such as tokenisation, enhanced 3DS flows and mobile wallet support. At the same time, the company needed a secure, cloud-ready foundation that would be robust enough for international growth and agile enough to incorporate future innovations.
Building a High-Performance Payments Engine for Global Scale
Since its launch in 2023, CleverCards has revolutionised how organisations issue configurable digital Mastercard cards. With more than 10,000 businesses now relying on its platform, the company needed the underlying infrastructure to match its global ambitions.
Back in 2021, CleverCards partnered with Plain Concepts to create the core processing engine behind the platform. This included expanding beyond a single card issuer, introducing in-house authorisation and settlement services, and enabling advanced checks to support real-time transaction decisioning. The objective was clear: build a flexible, future-ready payments foundation capable of powering rapid international growth.
Plain Concepts designed a robust, cloud-based architecture capable of integrating multiple card issuers, beginning with a major global payments network. The team delivered a high-performance authorisation engine that consistently meets the sub-4-second response requirement while performing essential security and balance checks.
This modular, scalable platform ensures that CleverCards can continue evolving—with support for new features such as mobile wallets, enhanced fraud prevention, and additional issuers. The collaboration delivered a reliable, future-proof payments engine designed for continuous innovation.
“Plain Concepts enabled CleverCards to deliver sub-4-second authorisations and build a scalable payments infrastructure ready for global expansion.”
Results
- Integrated multiple card issuers, boosting flexibility and reducing operational dependency.
- Delivered sub-4-second real-time authorisations with high reliability.
- Built a cloud-ready, scalable platform supporting future innovations.
- Enabled dynamic custom logic that unlocked new business opportunities.
- Established a robust technical foundation for CleverCards’ continued global growth.
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