Aura

About the Client

Aura Buy Invest Donate Pty Ltd (Aura) is a global FinTech start-up disrupting traditional loyalty programs. Instead of points, Aura gives members real money - with the flexibility to:

• Earn cash back on purchases
• Invest to grow savings
• Donate to a charity or club of their choice

With this model, Aura delivers fairer rewards for consumers while helping businesses attract and retain loyal customers more effectively.

The Challenge

As a brand-new start-up, Aura needed a development partner to bring their vision to life.

They approached Cerebrum to:

1. Build a prototype app (mobile and web) to demonstrate key features for investors, banks, and rewards partners.

2. Develop middleware integrations to securely connect with financial institutions, payment networks, funds managers, and charities.

The solution had to be secure, scalable, and flexible enough to handle future growth and millions of potential daily transactions.

The Solution

We took a pragmatic approach by first building a minimum viable product (MVP). This allowed Aura to test the app and showcase its potential to stakeholders.

Key prototype features included:

• User signup and registration
• Transactions and rewards tracking
• Partner and charity listings
• Investment overview and returns
• Invite-a-friend and card-link functionality

 

From there, we worked with Aura to create a robust cross-platform app (iOS, Android, and Web) built on a single codebase with secure, efficient third-party integration.

Highlights of the development included:

• Secure infrastructure capable of processing millions of customer interactions daily
• Robust investment component with two-factor authentication, automated investing, and KYC verification
• Middleware integrations connecting rewards, investment, and banking partners
• Advanced encryption and data protection for cross-platform compliance
• Scalable architecture to support rapid growth and feature expansion

 

Following successful testing, Aura launched with over 900 partners, multiple charities, and a fast-growing member base. We continue to work closely with them, providing ongoing development, integration, and user experience improvements.

 

Working with Simon and his team at Cerebrum for the past two years has been, and continues to be, an absolute pleasure. The strategy, development and support expertise they bring to each project, which they have honed over several decades in the industry, is first class. We can't recommend the team highly enough.

—Troy Zafer, Co-founder, Aura