Thought Machine

A London company whose cloud software helps banks run accounts and payments. Founded in 2014, it counts major banks among its customers.

About Thought Machine

Thought Machine builds the software banks use to run their core systems: accounts, loans and payments. Many banks still rely on decades-old technology, and Thought Machine's "Vault" platform lets them build and change financial products much faster, using modern cloud technology.

The company was founded in London in 2014 by Paul Taylor. Lloyds Banking Group became its first big bank customer in 2016, and it later signed deals with JPMorgan Chase and Standard Chartered in 2020. Its London headquarters is at 7 Herbrand Street in Bloomsbury, and it has offices in New York, Singapore, Lisbon, Miami, Sydney and Melbourne. It was named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for retail core banking in 2025.

Its main products are Vault Core, for accounts and products, and Vault Payments, which combines core banking and payments on one platform, launched in 2022. The company's stated aim is to replace old banking infrastructure with a unified, cloud-based platform.

For young people, Thought Machine is a strong example of a deep-technology fintech: roles are heavily in software engineering and banking expertise. The pages we read have no graduate programme information, so check its careers page.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Cloud-based core banking for accounts and products.', 'title': 'Vault Core'}
• {'desc': 'Cards and payments processing.', 'title': 'Vault Payments'}
• {'desc': 'Banks define products in code.', 'title': 'Smart contracts for banking'}
• {'desc': 'Round-the-clock engineering and support.', 'title': 'Support for large banks'}

Key facts

• Founded: 2014 in London by Paul Taylor
• Headquarters: 7 Herbrand Street, London WC1N 1EX
• Customers include Lloyds Banking Group, JPMorgan Chase and Standard Chartered
• Offices also in New York, Singapore, Lisbon, Miami, Sydney and Melbourne

Website: www.thoughtmachine.net