Podcast

145: Constantinople | Macgregor Duncan.

May 19, 2023 · Hosted by Dexter Cousins

“We’re a software company, so we are not a licensed bank. We don’t run a balance sheet. We don’t even think of ourselves as a fintech. We’re a software company providing services, software services into banks.”
– Macgregor Duncan

Record Aus $32m Seed Round!

Constantinople is the first of its kind: an all-in-one software and operational platform for banks. Providing a fully-managed platform service, covering customer experience, product, infrastructure, operations, servicing, and compliance.

Macgregor Duncan is the co-founder of Constantinople, a first-of-its-kind software and operational platform for banks. With a background in global banking, Macgregor and his co-founder Di Challenor launched Constantinople in 2022 to address the complex challenges faced by banks in managing their infrastructure and operations.

Dexter catches up with Macgregor in the week they officially announced their launch along with a record breaking $32m seed raise with Square Peg, Airtree and Great Southern Bank

Macgregor talks about the huge problem Constantinople is tackling, how they managed to raise such a significant amount at such a tough time and his journey from Global banking executive to Fintech founder.

“No customer is choosing who to bank with based on those services. And so we saw an opportunity to package up all of the infrastructure and the operational services, do it using software for a fraction of the cost, improve compliance outcomes, and allow our client banks to focus on the things that they want to do and the things that they’re best at.”
– Macgregor Duncan

About Constantinople

Macgregor Duncan joins the show to discuss Constantinople, an all-in-one software and operational platform for banks. He explains how Constantinople provides a fully managed platform service that covers customer experience, product infrastructure, operations, servicing, and compliance. Macgregor highlights the complexity of the problem they are solving and how they have been able to gain the confidence of customers and investors.

Constantinople’s services cover both retail and business banking. Its platform supports a full range of customer products, including mobile apps and internet banking, transaction and savings accounts, payments, debit and credit cards, and a range of secured and unsecured lending products. These customer products are fully configurable and issued by banks under their brand.

Constantinople also supports all underlying operational services, including customer
onboarding, KYC, AML, fraud management, payments and lending operations, loan origination and decisioning, regulatory reporting, and customer service. The platform uses software to embed compliance obligations, risk settings, and automated controls.

Key Takeaways:

Constantinople is a complete software and operational platform for banks, providing infrastructure and operational services to allow banks to focus on customer relationships and core banking activities.
The complexity of the banking industry and the need for compliance and risk management make it challenging for banks to automate their operations. Constantinople aims to solve this problem by providing a fully managed platform with automated controls.
Macgregor and his co-founder have leveraged their experience in global banking to understand the challenges faced by banks and develop a solution that addresses their needs.
The success of Constantinople’s seed round and the support of investors like Square Peg and AirTree demonstrate the potential of their platform and the confidence in their team and vision.
Constantinople recently released its platform into production and is soon to commence a live pilot with its first client bank, Great Southern Bank.

About Macgregor Duncan

Constantinople’s co-founders and co-CEOs, Macgregor Duncan and Dianne Challenor, are global banking executives with extensive banking and technology experience in the United States, Asia and Australia. Macgregor shares his personal journey from a global banking executive to a fintech founder.

Find out more – https://www.cxnpl.com/
Connect with Macgregor – https://www.linkedin.com/in/macgregor-duncan-bb0381179/

What happened next.

This episode was recorded in May 2023, the week Constantinople came out of stealth. Di and Mac came back to the show twice.

In March 2025 they reported four clients across four geographies and around 150 people. Great Southern Bank was live and in market, and the company had gone from seed to Series A on the strength of delivering the milestones it set itself. In 2026 Move Bank became the first bank to move its entire operation onto Constantinople, bringing cost to income down by around 30%, with five banks live and a target of ten by the end of the year.