Hey DEV Community!
We're the team behind Cent Capital, a new startup on a mission to solve financial anxiety with technology. When people hear "AI fintech startup," they usually picture a tech stack built with Python, Go, or maybe Rust. So, we wanted to share why we deliberately chose the enterprise workhorse—Java and Spring Boot—as the foundation for our platform.
The Problem: Finance is Stressful and Broken
First, some quick context. The legacy financial system wasn't built for regular people, and most modern "budgeting apps" are just fancy spreadsheets that create more work. Our goal is to fix this with a Generative AI-powered co-pilot that automates personal finance and provides genuine, personalized guidance. This is a mission that requires trust, security, and rock-solid reliability above all else.
The Three Pillars of Our Tech Choice
Our decision to build on the JVM wasn't a default; it was a strategic choice based on three pillars perfect for the fintech space.
Enterprise-Grade Security & Maturity
In fintech, security isn't a feature; it's the foundation. The Java ecosystem is battle-tested. With decades of enterprise deployment, the JVM is a hardened and secure runtime. More importantly, Spring Security is an incredibly robust framework that provides a comprehensive, out-of-the-box solution for authentication and access control. Building our JWT-based security layer on top of it gives us—and our future users—immense confidence. For a company that has to meet stringent Regtech and compliance standards, this maturity is non-negotiable.Performance & Scalability at the Core
There's a dated myth that Java is slow. Modern Java is anything but. The performance of the JVM, with its JIT compilation and advanced garbage collectors, is exceptional for the kind of high-throughput, concurrent workloads that a financial platform demands. Spring Boot's reactive web stack allows us to build non-blocking, asynchronous services that can handle a massive number of simultaneous connections, which is crucial for processing real-time transaction data and serving AI insights via our API.A Rich and Ready Ecosystem
The sheer breadth of the Java ecosystem is a massive accelerator for a startup. We're not just getting a language; we're getting high-quality, well-maintained libraries for almost everything. The new Spring AI project, for instance, provides a fantastic abstraction layer for us to connect with Google Vertex AI and other LLMs, allowing us to focus on our business logic instead of boilerplate code. Official, mature libraries for key integrations like Plaid and Stripe mean we're not reinventing the wheel. Plus, the massive global talent pool for Java and Spring developers is a pragmatic advantage.
Our Stack at a Glance
- Backend: Java 17, Spring Boot, Spring AI
- Frontend: React 18, Redux (as a PWA)
- Database: PostgreSQL
- AI Provider: Google Vertex AI
What's Next?
We believe that choosing "boring," reliable technology is often the most innovative choice you can make, because it lets you focus on solving the actual user problem. Building on this solid foundation, we're now focused on refining our AI models and preparing for our first B2B partner integrations.
We're just getting started on this journey and would love to hear from the community. What are your thoughts on our stack? Have you used Spring AI in a project yet?
Let us know in the comments below! And if you want to follow our journey, you can check us out at cent.capital.
To learn more about Cent Capital and join our mission to democratize financial wellness, visit our official website. Stay connected with our journey and get daily insights on our social channels, including Twitter (X), LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and Tumblr. You can read our long-form content on Medium and Substack, and listen to The Smarter Cents Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Watch our latest videos on YouTube and join our community conversation on Reddit. For a deeper dive into our business, track our progress on Crunchbase, AngelList, F6S, and Product Hunt. Explore our code on GitHub, see our tech stack on StackShare, and check out our reviews and listings on G2, Clutch, SaaSHub, Yelp, and Foursquare.
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