Building PayIQ: one money platform for people and small businesses, with an AI assistant at its core
How we took PayIQ from a blank canvas to a launch-ready platform in six months: a consumer app, a business app, a storefront builder, admin and vendor dashboards and Ibra, an AI assistant, all running on one backend.
- Client
- PayIQ
- Industry
- Fintech
- Location
- Nigeria
- Timeline
- 6 months
- Year
- 2026
- Services
- Design, Development, AI
- Platforms
- iOS, Android, Web
5
products on one backend
6 mo
from first commit to launch-ready
2,500+
commits across the platform
2
full themes, light and dark
Overview
One platform for everyday money.
PayIQ set out to give people and small businesses in Nigeria one place for their money. For people, that means paying, saving, splitting bills and understanding where their money goes. For small businesses, it means an account that also keeps the books, handles invoices and payroll, and warns them about problems before they happen.
Tecton was the product team from the first sketch to a launch-ready build. We designed every screen, built the mobile apps, the backend and the web dashboards, and designed and built Ibra, the AI assistant that ties it all together.
The challenge
Money and records usually live in different places.
Most small businesses run their payments in one app and their records somewhere else: a spreadsheet, a notebook or a separate bookkeeping tool. Records fall behind, admin eats into the working week, and owners find out about a cash shortfall when it is already too late to fix.
New e-invoicing rules add to the pressure: businesses now need to issue invoices that meet the tax authority’s requirements. PayIQ wanted compliance to be part of the product from the start, not an extra tool bolted on later.
What PayIQ needed
One account where every payment becomes a record automatically
Tax-compliant invoicing and payroll built into the business app
An assistant that explains finances in plain language and flags risks early
A consumer app and a business app without two separate engineering efforts
Our approach
Design system first, then one backend for everything.
We ran design and engineering side by side, in short cycles, so every design decision could be tested in a working build.
- 01
Map the product
Mapped every flow for people and businesses, from sign-up and identity checks to payments, books and payroll.
- 02
Build the design system
Tokens, components and patterns designed in Pencil, with light and dark themes from the start.
- 03
Design the screens
A step-by-step design spec covering every screen, state and edge case, built on the shared components.
- 04
Build on one backend
A single NestJS backend serving the mobile apps, the admin and vendor dashboards and the storefronts.
- 05
Prepare for launch
Testing, automated checks in CI and release builds for both app stores.
Consumer app
Everyday money, without the friction.
The consumer app covers the things people do with money every day, designed so each task takes as few steps as possible.
Send money, buy airtime and pay bills
Savings, virtual cards and a clear view of net worth
Split a bill by scanning the receipt and choosing who pays what
Spending analytics that sort transactions automatically
Business app
A business account that keeps the books.
PayIQ Business turns every transaction into a record, so the books are always up to date without extra data entry.
Books overview with profit & loss and cash-flow statements
A categorisation inbox for anything that needs a second look
Invoices, customers, suppliers and payment reminders
Payroll runs, payslips, team roles and approvals
AI assistant
Ibra answers questions and spots problems early.
Ibra is PayIQ’s AI assistant, available across the apps. Owners can ask questions in plain language, like how much they made last month or who owes them money, and get an answer backed by their own data.
Ibra also works in the background: it suggests categories for new transactions, spots unusual spending and duplicate subscriptions, and warns when upcoming payroll is at risk because invoices are still unpaid.
Plain-language answers about income, expenses and customers
Suggested categories with a confidence score
Proactive insights, with a one-tap action for each
Compliance
Compliance built in, not bolted on.
The compliance hub shows every upcoming obligation, with its due date and estimated amount, alongside a simple health score. Invoices are validated against the e-invoicing requirements before they are sent, and funds can be set aside for tax as money comes in.
Storefront
An online shop for every merchant.
Merchants can publish an online store straight from the business app: pick a template, add products and connect a domain. Orders and payments flow back into the same account and the same books.
More of the product
Payroll, forecasting and onboarding.
Payroll review, a 90-day cash-flow forecast and business onboarding.
Design system
One system, two themes, hundreds of screens.
Every screen is built from one set of tokens and components, designed live in Pencil and ported one to one into code. Colour is reserved for data, status and actions, and separation comes from strokes and surfaces rather than shadows, which keeps dense financial screens calm and readable.
Because every value is themed, each component works in both light and dark mode without a second copy.
Technology
Built to scale from day one.
One backend serves every app, so a feature built once is available everywhere it is needed.
Mobile apps
- React Native
- Expo
- TypeScript
- Zustand
Consumer and business apps from one set of conventions, with typed routes checked in CI.
Backend
- NestJS
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- Job queues
A single API for every product, with background jobs for statements, reminders and payouts.
Web
- React
- Next.js
Admin and vendor dashboards, plus the storefronts merchants publish.
AI
- Claude API
- Embeddings service
Powers Ibra’s answers, categorisation suggestions and proactive insights.
Where it is now
Launching soon.
PayIQ is in final preparation for launch. The consumer and business apps, the storefront builder and the dashboards are built and being prepared for release.
What we delivered
- Product strategy and flows for consumer and business customers
- A complete design system in light and dark themes
- iOS and Android apps for consumers and businesses
- A shared backend, admin dashboard, vendor dashboard and storefronts
- Ibra, the AI assistant, from conversation design to production
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