Thought Machine, founded in 2014, is a London-based technology company that builds cloud-native software to modernise core banking and payments infrastructure. The firm's flagship products are Vault Core, a core banking platform, and Vault Payments, a payments processing system. Both are built using microservices architecture and API-first design principles.
The company employs over 550 people across offices in London, New York, Singapore, Sydney and Lisbon. It has raised funding exceeding £500m. Thought Machine was named a leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Retail Core Banking Systems and recognised by the Financial Times as one of Europe's fastest-growing companies.
Its technology stack spans cloud banking, core banking systems, payments processing, microservices architecture and API-first design. The firm was founded by a former Google engineer and an Edinburgh AI researcher, with the stated mission of replacing outdated banking infrastructure.
