While most fintech companies chase after tech startups and large corporations, millions of small and medium-sized businesses in traditional industries have been left behind. Pharmacies, auto dealerships, HVAC contractors, and other "backbone" businesses that form the foundation of the American economy often struggle to find financial products that understand their unique needs. Affiniti is on a mission to change that.
Founded in 2022 by Aaron Bai and Sahil Phadnis, Affiniti is a financial technology company that provides an all-in-one financial operating system specifically designed for SMBs in industries that have been historically overlooked by modern fintech. Co-founder Sahil Phadnis refers to this as building solutions for the "forgotten 90% of GDP"—the traditional businesses that keep communities running but rarely capture fintech headlines.
Affiniti's approach is fundamentally different. Rather than offering generic financial products, they develop tools tailored for backbone industry SMBs through partnerships with trusted trade associations, creating customized credit cards, expense management solutions, and AI-powered financial insights.
But to truly scale their mission of serving these underserved businesses, Affiniti needed robust payment infrastructure that could handle the complex requirements of servicing repayments and collecting funds from thousands of individual business customers efficiently and reliably. That's where Lithic came in.
Scaling payment collections for business customers
Building a financial operating system for traditional businesses requires more than just great products; it demands sophisticated back-office infrastructure that can handle the complexities of serving diverse customer bases across multiple industries.
Lithic's consultative approach proved essential in designing the right architecture. Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all solution, Lithic's team worked closely with Affiniti to understand their specific needs and structure a multi-tiered account hierarchy that would scale efficiently.
The solution features a sophisticated yet streamlined architecture: program accounts at the top level for Affiniti's operations, with individual routable operating accounts created for each business customer that they enrolled. This structure enables Affiniti to use Lithic's Payments API to originate ACH debits from individual customer accounts, manage settled funds, and handle payments to their external bank accounts and debt facilities—all while maintaining clear visibility and control over the entire process.
Lithic's ACH infrastructure offers the enterprise-grade capabilities that growing fintech companies like Affiniti require. With direct network access to the Federal Reserve, bypassing third-party intermediaries, Lithic provides access to every ACH window along with real-time status updates. The platform includes automated exception handling for returns and reversals, built-in compliance screening with OFAC and NACHA rules monitoring, and direct reconciliation capabilities for complete visibility and control over payment operations.
Powering growth for underserved markets
The partnership between Affiniti and Lithic represents more than just a technical integration—it's infrastructure that enables financial inclusion for an entire segment of the economy that has been overlooked by traditional fintech.
By providing Affiniti with robust, consultative ACH infrastructure, Lithic has enabled them to focus on their core mission: developing financial products that truly serve the needs of traditional businesses. The sophisticated payment collection system powered by Lithic's flexible architecture, gives Affiniti the operational foundation they need to scale their services across multiple industries.
.png)
Get Flexible ACH Solutions, Expert Consultation, and Scalable Infrastructure With Lithic. Connect with us today.