Shaype, the Australian payments and embedded-finance firm, has confirmed a £2.4 million research and development project, OmniRail, to be delivered from its Belfast operation through its UK subsidiary Hay Technology Ltd. The project matters to the sector because it applies AI to international payment processing and fraud detection, which the company wants to make more intelligent, efficient and secure.

As stated in Shaype’s company profile, it provides an embedded finance and payments platform that lets banks, fintechs and enterprises run financial products including accounts, cards and payments. Founded in 2018, it has had a team in Belfast since 2019, alongside offices in London, Bucharest and Sydney.

As reported by The Irish News, OmniRail is designed to let organisations send and receive payments across multiple countries through a single connection, rather than integrating separately with each national payment system. The project aims to enhance fraud detection, improve payment routing and authorisation decisions, and improve operational efficiency, using AI among other technology.

The project will create four jobs, a product owner and three senior engineers, and Belfast was chosen over the company’s other bases in London, Bucharest and Sydney.

David Woodburn, global chief technology officer at Shaype, said: “OmniRail is at the heart of our international expansion strategy.”

He added: “We chose Northern Ireland because of the strength of its technology sector and the skilled talent we have worked with here since 2019.”

Woodburn also said: “The project will build on the technology we have already developed here, and we believe this has the potential to significantly strengthen our offering, open up new markets and support our continued growth internationally.”

Woodburn also said, as reported by The News Letter: “As a result of securing this project, the Belfast team will play an important role in delivering Shaype’s international growth ambitions.”

The structural driver is the fragmentation of national payment systems, which forces organisations to integrate separately with each one, and the use of AI to improve fraud detection and routing across a single connection.

For the sector, the project shows payments firms locating AI-led R&D in regional engineering hubs, with Belfast chosen over three other company bases for a global platform.