Apto Payments
Apto Payments Technical Briefing
Published April 6, 2021
Supported by Shopify and IowaEDA
Overview
Meg Nakamura, Willis Jackson III, and Mike of Apto Payments demo Apto\'s self-service card issuance platform — the answer to years of customer complaints about how long and how expensive standing up a card program used to be. The new Apto is developer-first and fully self-service: design, build, launch, and scale a debit or prepaid card program without ever talking to a salesperson. The demo walks through real signup, API keys, a cardholder app delivered via TestFlight, KYC-backed cardholder onboarding, sandbox test transactions, and the production application (revenue split, KYB, UBO capture, off-the-shelf card designs, $500 collateral). Meg funds her card via ACH and a linked debit card, adds it to Apple Pay, and buys a Raygun t-shirt online — the transaction appears in both the Apto admin and the cardholder app within seconds. A closing demo fires an Apto API call to credit $20 to the cardholder wallet as a marketing incentive, and Willis covers the mobile SDK vs. white-label wrapper paths to shipping the cardholder app under your own brand.
0:00 Introduction to Apto Payments — self-service card issuance
Meg Nakamura introduces Apto Payments' newest product. After hearing the same "time to market" pain from card-program customers, Apto built a developer-first, fully self-service issuance platform — design, build, launch, and scale a card program without ever talking to a salesperson.
1:00 Self-serve signup and API keys
Willis Jackson III walks through the real Apto signup, email verification, and grabbing an API key in the dashboard — plus team member invites, all from the browser in sandbox.
2:30 Cardholder sign-up via text message
Apto sends Meg a text with a TestFlight invite to the Apto cardholder app. Any issuer can bootstrap a compliant, bank-approved cardholder onboarding flow in a couple of taps — no mobile app build needed.
3:30 KYC-backed cardholder onboarding
The cardholder signup collects phone, personal details, and legal agreements, runs full KYC on the backend (compliant with the issuing bank), and issues a card — all in sandbox with fake data, but the same flow that runs in production.
5:30 Sandbox test transactions and card view
Back in the dashboard, Willis sees the cardholder and the just-issued card. Apto's sandbox supports test transactions across patterns so issuers can shake out webhooks, disputes, and spend controls before flipping to production.
6:00 Production application — revenue split and KYB
Moving to production involves accepting Apto's standard setup fees plus interchange and revenue split, running KYB on the issuing company, capturing UBOs, and verifying a company phone number.
8:00 Card design picker and $500 collateral
Pick an off-the-shelf card color (or upload a custom logo), sign the terms, and put up $500 of collateral. That's the last step before Apto's production application — and they're your card program.
9:00 Apple Pay purchase — live card in production
Meg opens her Apto cardholder app, funds the card via ACH in and debit card in, adds it to Apple Pay, and buys a Raygun t-shirt online. The transaction appears in both the dashboard and the app within seconds.
12:30 Funding endpoints for marketing incentives
A separate Apto API endpoint credits a cardholder wallet directly — useful for promotional spiffs like crediting $20 after a first purchase. Willis fires it from Postman and the balance updates in the cardholder app.
13:30 Mobile SDK or off-the-shelf wrapper app
Apto offers two paths to ship the cardholder experience: either the mobile SDK for teams building their own app, or Apto's off-the-shelf white-label app you wrap with a splash screen and publish under your brand.
Presented by Meg Nakamura and Willis Jackson III — Apto Payments · website
Topics: Payments, Embedded Finance
