Banksalad overhauls organization amid heated competition

Banksalad's office on Yeouido, Seoul / Courtesy of Banksalad

By Kim Bo-eun

The personal finance managing app Banksalad said Tuesday it has overhauled its organization to prepare for a new data business and to become more competitive as competition heats up among fintech players.

Banksalad said the reorganization is based on the "lean startup," which is a globally applied approach to creating and managing startups and cutting down the time for a product to reach customers.

The startup said its organization is now comprised of three sets of groups named "squads," "foundations" and "divisions," according to function.

For example, the squads, a small unit consisting of eight or fewer members, is in charge of projects. They will run the entire process of planning to launch of new products or services. The foundations will focus on stabilizing the organization, while the divisions will take charge of producing an operating system.

Most employees of Banksalad will become part of squads, with the exception of staff members of the back office.

The startup said new squads can be created and existing squads can be dissolved according to needs and circumstances.

Each group holds the authority and responsibility for executing tasks. This is intended to speed up work processes, Banksalad said.

The startup said the new organization will enable it to swiftly experiment, receive customer feedback and make improvements in an efficient manner.

This will allow customers to access new services they need sooner and faster, it said.

The startup said the reorganization was conducted to prepare for a new data business that many financial firms and fintech startups will undertake.

Banksalad said it uses the communication platform Slack to share all work-related discussions transparently.

The startup has a horizontal culture in which anyone can become a project leader regardless of seniority.

"We will create the most suitable organization for Banksalad and at the same time seek to maintain the form of a lean startup which we are seeking to make the basis of our organization," a Banksalad official said.

Banksalad's app pools a user's financial data from different banks and finance firms into a single platform. It collects data on 10,000 financial products of 200 financial institutions.

The app, launched in 2017, had 6 million downloads as of January this year.

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