Meet Nona, The No-Nonsense Masters of FinTech Development

Berlin, Germany - Ladies and Gentleman! Welcome to the Pangea Universe, where we are proud to present the newest cohort of talented humans. Coming to us from Cape Town, South Africa, this company skillfully balances in-house responsibilities with client satisfaction in their many projects. So sit back and relax and learn all about how these FinTech specialists work their magic!

Masters of FinTech

Founded in Cape Town in 2012, Nona was created with a vision to deliver software products and teams at a standard that raises the level of the industry as a whole. Over the years, they have grown into true experts in the realm of FinTech, with a particular flair for Blockchain and cryptocurrency. Obsessed with quality in everything that they do, Nona is—as one client put it—the type of business “that paints the back of the cupboard”, reflecting attention to detail that is mirrored in their carefully crafted code.

According to CEO Mike Scott, Nona’s single-minded focus on mastering one industry has given the company an edge when it comes to FinTech development:

“We're focused on delivering value through mastery and enjoyment of what we do. [...] We have been doing this for a long time. It’s all we do. We know how to go faster and at a quality to cost ratio that would take you years to set up from scratch.”

In order to help them reach their goal as one of the best FinTech software consultancies in the world, Nona adheres to values that help them integrate their work into their lifestyles instead of pitting them against each other. Every member of the company takes ownership of their work and is generous with their knowledge, creating a collaborative environment where ideas are tested and skills are propagated. Continuous improvement is a way of life at the company, as is open and honest communication no matter what.

These collaborative practices have proven to be immensely effective, reflected by the impressive number of awards and commendations Nona has received over the years:

• Best Consumer Solution 2017 by the MTN Group
• Gold Pixel Award - Digital Installations and Activations 2017 by the IAB Bookmarks
• Silver Pixel Award - Innovative use of Media 2017 by the IAB Bookmarks
• Bronze Pixel - Mobile Apps 2016 by the IAB Bookmarks

In keeping with this slew of accolades, Pangea is happy to award Nona an overall Pangea Score of 8.6/10.0. This solid score reflects the high opinion both their employees and clients have for the company, which is expanded upon in the sections below.

A Culture of Trust

Although they are a relatively boutique team with ~30 employees across their offices in Cape Town and Adelaide, the average seniority at Nona is a whopping 9.3 years. Such a balance between size and senior-heavy experience means that company principals are actively involved in every aspect of the company, while the team efficiently delivers consistently excellent deliverables. The close-knit business operates on the principles of being personally relaxed and friendly yet professionally driven and excellent, resulting in an excellent Team Health Score of 8.8/10.0 in Pangea’s verification.

One of the greatest strengths of the company is its commitment to continuous improvement, manifested in a wealth of educational opportunities (the company even has a Head of Learning). Each employee receives over 200 training hours a year, which helps to explain the company’s 90% overall retention rate and it’s personal growth rating of 9.3/10.0. Gust Greyvenstein, graphic designer at Nona, can attest to how beneficial this training can be:

“I started 5 years ago at Nona with no UX/UI experience. Nona guided me to be the designer that I am today. Nona has a great way to find like-minded talented individuals and let them grow even further.”

Moreover, the company has a cohesive sense of community which is promoted by monthly events such as office trivia, social events, and outdoor activities. Indeed, some of the company’s highest-scoring metrics are in culture (9.4/10.0) and peer rapport (9.2/10.0), indicating a team that is truly supportive. Per project manager Danielle Gordon:

“Nona is a really great company to work for. It really feels like we are in it together and I feel genuinely supported by my managers and colleagues alike, making it not only easy but a pleasure to strive for perfection in my career.”

Finally, although the company moved away from their initial flat hierarchies, management is always accessible and everyone in the company has a voice, as shown by Nona’s management rapport score of 9.0/10. CEO Mike Scott ensures he is never the smartest person in the room because he’s constructed a team of the best-qualified people for the job. Product designer, Laura Flint sums up the company vibe as follows:

“It's a really fantastic place to work where personal growth and honesty have created a culture of hard-working, but also entertaining, people who really know what they're doing and do it well.”

Nona team members taking some time to relax

In The Business of Solutions

Nona’s mission is to build elegant, maintainable, and scalable software that solves business problems and is a pleasure to use. By all accounts, they have delivered on this goal (and then some), earning a Client Insight Score of 8.3/10.0. Moreover, a majority of their new projects come through positive recommendations, such as:

“Great working with the team - always refer the team to companies needing dev.”

- Antonio Bruni, CEO @ Picup

As mentioned, Nona’s nine years of experience has focused them and honed their skills to stand out in the FinTech industry. They have delivered blockchain solutions to clients like Civic, Algorand, Tezos, and Decentral, and are also developing online payments and identity verification solutions for companies like Yoco and GBG, respectively. Their clients were particularly impressed with their UX/UI Design (9.2/10.0), their business maturity (8.8/10.0), and their Technical Expertise (8.7/10.0).

Beyond the numbers, you can see how deeply businesses appreciate Nona’s professionalism and experience:

“Nona's team was very professional but also very flexible to our needs. We had a short-term engagement and they were very responsive and provided multiple opportunities for us to review and provide feedback on the work while it was being done.”

- Marshall Cowan, COO @ Licorice App Pty Ltd

“From the onset, when agreeing to the nearly impossible task of taking over and repairing an existing and very problematic codebase, Nona was amazing. The team's skillset and attitude are phenomenal and I would not hesitate to highly recommend them.”

- Mandy Ritchie, CEO @ TV Workflow (PTY) Ltd

“Nona provided us with a great service, understood where we were at in the startup journey, and tailored their advice to us accordingly. Nona also had the right people in the room at the right times, to ensure we got the best value for money.”

- Ben Harg, Founder @ Wayo

A glimpse into a Nona team meeting

Making the Complex Simple

The engineers at Nona understand that not all code is created equal. They are devoted to technical excellence and deliver it through modern clean code, thorough testing, and comprehensive documentation. Moreover, by utilizing an ever-expanding toolbox of pre-developed features, the company can bring a high-quality product to market in record time.

While they primarily use React.js, React Native, Node.js, and AWS, their tech stack includes all manner of other languages (JavaScript, Solidarity, Kotlin, Swift, etc.), frameworks (Angular, Vue, Redux, etc.), and more (Docker, SQL, MongoDB). The team at Nona has competency in pretty much any technical tool you can think of, and (perhaps more importantly) have the experience to know which tools are right for which applications.

So, if you are looking for a trusted partner deeply familiar with the world of FinTech, Blockchain, banking, e-commerce, or payments, Nona may just be the perfect match. They can help build you a reliable product from scratch that won’t fail and will engage users. Head over to their engagement page to learn more about how to get in contact with this impressive group of technicians. We’ll leave you with the words of CEO Mike Scott, who sums up his company as follows:

“Nona builds tech right the first time and accelerates software projects for businesses like yours."