# Juha Ristolainen > CPTO at BUX, ABN AMRO's European neobroker, with 15 years in executive leadership. Fifteen years building regulated FinTech platforms — B2B API infrastructure at Wise, Upvest, and Alpaca, now a customer-facing wealth-building platform at BUX. Scaled engineering organisations from 5 to 130. Canonical page: https://www.juharistolainen.com/ CPTO at BUX (ABN AMRO) · Amsterdam # Scale-up CTO. FinTech APIs. From 5 to 250 FTE. 1. Wise 2. Upvest 3. Alpaca 4. BUX Fifteen years in executive leadership, twenty-six years shipping software. Built the B2B API infrastructure that powers banks, neobanks and brokers across Europe and the US. Now CPTO at BUX, ABN AMRO's Amsterdam neobroker, turning that same regulated-platform engineering into a customer-facing wealth platform. [Book a 30-minute call](https://calendar.app.google/Aea5jZaST9iFzXoX8) [See the arc](https://www.juharistolainen.com/#arc) ![Juha Ristolainen](https://www.juharistolainen.com/media/headshot.jpg) Now CPTO at BUX (ABN AMRO) Amsterdam · since 2026 Based Helsinki, Finland Amsterdam for BUX Focus Consumer wealth at scale Retail investing · Savings migration Reach [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/juharistolainen/) juha.ristolainen@iki.fi 01 · The arc ## Four roles, one through-line: from B2B rails to consumer wealth. 2018 – 2020 ### Wise CTO TransferWise for Business FCA-regulated · $11B public Drove the strategic shift from app-first to API-first across the entire B2B division. £1B moved per week. 80 FTE across 6 global sites. 2020 – 2025 ### Upvest CTO & Co-founder BaFin-licensed · €640M Built Europe's investment-infrastructure API from zero. Scaled 5 to 120+, raised €180M, €50M ARR. Powers Revolut, N26, Bunq and Raisin. 2025 – 2026 ### Alpaca CTO $1.15B Series D · 400+ partners Scaled a broker-dealer API for the AI era. 80 to 130 engineers. Shipped one of the first external MCP servers for a regulated brokerage API. 2026 – now Current ### BUX CPTO ABN AMRO · Amsterdam The same regulated-platform engineering, pointed at end customers: turning ABN AMRO's neobroker into a wealth-building platform. The mandate is to migrate a second acquisition's savings book onto it, targeting 4× end users and 10× AuM. 02 · Playbook ## Four capabilities I bring to every mandate. ### Scale-up org design Team Topologies, OKRs, empowered and autonomous distributed teams. Proven from 5 to 250 FTE across three FinTech platforms. ### Regulated FinTech architecture BaFin and FCA platforms, event-driven microservices, CQRS, cloud-native infrastructure, DevSecOps. Compliance-by-design baked into the SDLC. ### AI-native engineering First-mover MCP server deployment, agentic operations, agentic SDLC and software factories. Compounding velocity rather than swapping headcount for tools. ### API-first platform strategy Turning consumer FinTechs into platforms — partner integrations, embedded finance, developer experience as a first-class product surface. 03 · Track record ## Twenty-six years shipping. Fifteen in executive leadership. 2026 – now European neobroker, wholly owned by ABN AMRO · Amsterdam · consumer wealth platform BUX (ABN AMRO) Chief Product & Technology Officer Current ### From B2B rails to a customer-facing wealth platform. First product-and-technology mandate combining both functions. The through-line from Wise, Upvest, and Alpaca is the same regulated-platform engineering, pointed at end customers rather than at other companies' APIs: turning a neobroker into a wealth-building platform, and absorbing the savings book of another ABN AMRO acquisition onto it. 4× End users (migration target) 10× AuM (migration target) B2B → B2C Infrastructure to consumer wealth Mandate targets, not delivered results. 2025 – 2026 $1.15B valuation (Series D, $150M) · $10B AUC · $130M run-rate revenue · 400+ partners Alpaca Chief Technology Officer ### Scaled brokerage infrastructure for the AI era. Scaled engineering for Alpaca's broker-dealer and investment-infrastructure API at global scale, growing the organisation from 80 to 130 engineers against the company's 2.5× AUC growth target. $10B Assets under custody $130M Run-rate revenue 80 → 130 Eng FTE (roadmap 250) 2020 – 2025 Regulated B2B investment-infrastructure API · €180M raised (Series A–C) · €640M most recent valuation Upvest CTO & Co-founder ### From crypto custody to Europe's investment-infrastructure API. Built Upvest from zero to a market-leading European investment-infrastructure platform powering Revolut, N26, Bunq, and Raisin. Scaled through two distinct phases — zero-to-one foundation building, then scaling to market leadership. €180M Raised across Series A–C 50M+ End-users on platform 5 → 120+ Engineers scaled 2018 – 2020 B2B division (Wise for Business + Wise Platform) · £1B moved/week · 80 FTE across 6 global sites · B2B grew \~75% YoY Wise (formerly TransferWise) CTO TransferWise for Business ### API-first transformation of Wise's entire B2B division. Led engineering for Wise's entire B2B division — Wise for Business and Wise Platform. Drove the strategic shift to API-first across the org while the division grew \~75% YoY, twice the rate of the consumer business. £1B Moved per week 75% YoY B2B growth 80 FTE / 6 sites / 3 continents 2008 – 2015 Futurice Technology Director ### Fifteen years compounding technical leadership. Instrumental in scaling the company from a Tampere startup to an international consultancy of several hundred people, including establishing the Berlin and London offices. Led delivery for global enterprise clients including Microsoft, Nokia, and Samsung across a wide range of technologies and problem domains. Notable deliveries include the Windows 8 HERE Maps application, the Samsung Goal+ World Cup app across mobile and Smart TV platforms, and the Nokia N-series music player that shipped on hundreds of millions of devices worldwide. 5 → 500 Grew with Futurice 6th Employee at join 3 Countries (FI · DE · UK) 04 · Proof ## The numbers behind the title. 5 → 250 Engineers scaled Across Wise, Upvest, Alpaca $25B Assets under custody Across BUX, Alpaca, Upvest £1B Moved per week Wise Platform B2B 75% YoY B2B growth Wise Platform under my watch \~$500M Capital raised across mandates Earlybird · Notion · HV · Bessemer · BlackRock · Sapphire · Drive · Citadel $100M+ Run-rate revenue 50M+ End-users served 20M+ Trades / year at Upvest Peak 1M+/wk · 100K+ in a day 10+ Regulators across 10 jurisdictions Germany · Netherlands · Belgium · US · Canada · Japan · Singapore · India · Saudi Arabia · UAE 6 Global sites at Wise London · Budapest · Tallinn · NYC · Tampa · Singapore 4 FinTech platforms led BUX · Alpaca · Upvest · Wise 2 BaFin licenses secured Crypto custody bank + investment infra 05 · Selected ships ## Things put into production that mattered. 1. 01 ### One of the first external MCP servers for a regulated brokerage API — LLM-driven algotrading on real markets. Alpaca 2025 2. 02 ### Strategic pivot at Upvest — from crypto custody to a comprehensive investment-infrastructure API. Upvest 2021 3. 03 ### API-first transformation of Wise's entire B2B division — division grew \~75% YoY, twice the rate of consumer. Wise 2018–20 4. 04 ### Two BaFin licenses: one of Germany's first crypto custody bank licenses, plus investment-infrastructure license. Upvest 2021–24 5. 05 ### Opened US, Canada, Australia, Portugal through bank partnerships at Wise. Stanford CU · Novo · Eq · Up · Activo 2018–20 6. 06 ### First Symbian GPU driver — OpenVG / OpenGL ES at kernel level. Shipped on hundreds of millions of Nokia devices. Broadcom IVE3 · Nokia N8 Earlier 06 · Beyond the day job ## Board work, angel investing and operating principles. Board · Advisory ### Sustashift Non-executive director · 2025 – now AI-automated CSRD reporting for regulated companies. ### Earlier advisory Sanako · Blockchain & Climate Institute · Track (acq. Transporeon) · Vaana Board, NED and advisor roles, 2009 – 2025. Angel · Network ### FIBAN (Finnish Business Angel Network) Active angel Active angel investor — member of FIBAN. ### Greencode Ventures Advisor Part of Greencode Ventures advisor network for deal sourcing and technical due diligence. Operating principles Builder first I started as an engineer and stay close to the work. I lead organisations I would want to work in. Compounding velocity Every quarter the team should be faster than the last — through better people, better tooling, better architecture, and now AI. Regulated by design In FinTech, compliance is part of the platform, not a checkpoint at the end. Distributed by default I have run engineering across six time zones and three continents. Talent does not cluster geographically anymore — neither should the work. 07 · Get in touch ## Building consumer wealth at BUX. Always up for comparing notes. I'm not looking for a new executive mandate. I keep time for board and advisory conversations, for founders building on regulated rails, and for anyone wrestling with the same migration and platform problems. A candid call, no deck, no agenda. [Book a 30-minute call](https://calendar.app.google/Aea5jZaST9iFzXoX8) [Email me](mailto:juha.ristolainen@iki.fi?subject=Contact%20from%20your%20website) Now CPTO at BUX (ABN AMRO) · Amsterdam Open to Board · Advisory · Angel Sectors FinTech · B2B SaaS · Regulated platforms · Embedded finance · Investment infrastructure Not seeking Not looking for a new executive mandate. Email [juha.ristolainen@iki.fi](mailto:juha.ristolainen@iki.fi?subject=Contact%20from%20your%20website) Response 1-2 days © 2026 Juha Ristolainen · Helsinki, Finland [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/juharistolainen/) [juha.ristolainen@iki.fi](mailto:juha.ristolainen@iki.fi?subject=Contact%20from%20your%20website) [Get in touch](https://www.juharistolainen.com/#book)