From 0 to 1. Faster.
Build a product that scales from day one — with automation-first engineering and cloud-native delivery.
Stop building on shaky ground. Based in the UK, Codenest provides fractional CTO services for London startups and beyond — helping fintech, healthtech, and SaaS companies move from MVP to enterprise-ready using GitOps, Infrastructure-as-Code, and Kubernetes-powered platforms. From first commit to global rollout, we deliver the reliability, speed, and clarity your team needs to grow confidently.
Trusted by UK startups building fast and scaling fearlessly.
Our Philosophy
We believe in infrastructure as code, repeatable delivery, and developer autonomy.
Every system we build is designed to scale and evolve — because startups deserve enterprise-grade foundations from day one.
Speed comes from structure.
Who We Serve
Fractional CTO services for UK startups across high-growth sectors
Fintech Startups
Fractional CTO for fintech startups in London and across the UK. From payment platforms to lending apps, we help you navigate complex compliance requirements while building scalable, secure infrastructure.
- PCI-DSS compliant architecture
- Payment gateway integration
- FCA regulatory guidance
Healthtech Startups
Fractional CTO for healthcare startups navigating GDPR, NHS integrations, and medical device regulations. We build secure, compliant platforms that can scale with your patient base.
- GDPR & data protection
- NHS integration experience
- Clinical data security
SaaS & B2B Platforms
Startup CTO expertise for UK B2B SaaS companies. We help you build multi-tenant architectures, implement usage-based billing, and scale infrastructure as you grow from 10 to 10,000 customers.
- Multi-tenant architecture
- API-first design
- Usage-based billing
Serving startups across London, Manchester, Edinburgh, and throughout the UK and Europe
Discuss your sector-specific needsWhat We Do
Technical and financial leadership — from strategy to execution
Fractional CTO
Strategic technical leadership for UK startups in fintech, healthtech, and SaaS. Architecture decisions, team scaling, and investor readiness — without the full-time cost of a startup CTO in London.
0→1 Product Builds
MVP development using proven cloud-native templates. Ship in weeks, not months — with production-grade foundations built in.
AI & Data Engineering
Turn experimental LLMs into production systems. MLOps pipelines, vector databases, and scalable data infrastructure.
IaC & GitOps Acceleration
GitOps consulting for UK startups: reproducible infrastructure and automated deployments. CI/CD pipelines that enable fast, safe iteration from day one.
Technical Due Diligence
Comprehensive technical assessments for investors and acquirers. Architecture reviews, scalability audits, and risk analysis.
Recent Work
Real problems solved for real startups
Rungway: Scaling a Social Mentoring Platform
Challenge
A London-based HR-tech startup needed fractional CTO support to scale their social mentoring platform. The system could only handle 5 concurrent users before experiencing severe performance degradation — completely inadequate for their UK enterprise client base.
Solution
We delivered a complete architectural transformation as their interim startup CTO, migrating from Neo4J to a hybrid MySQL/NoSQL architecture for the primary data store (retaining Neo4J for AI/ML). Our team implemented microservices with domain-driven design, established Infrastructure as Code with AWS, built CI/CD pipelines, introduced event-driven architecture with SQS, and containerized the entire stack.
Results
- Scaled from 5 to 1000+ concurrent users
- Zero-downtime database migration
- Modern DevOps foundations established
- Event-driven microservices architecture
Opayo by Elavon: Payment Platform Transformation
Challenge
Leading UK fintech payment provider needed Kubernetes consulting to modernize their infrastructure and integrate new payment channels (Apple Pay, Google Pay) while maintaining 100% uptime for critical transaction processing across Europe.
Solution
We orchestrated a comprehensive AWS EKS migration with Kubernetes and Helm, implementing GitOps workflows and Infrastructure as Code using Terraform. Our team managed the transition from monolithic architecture to microservices, established Jenkins CI/CD pipelines migrated to Kubernetes, and scaled engineering culture across distributed teams.
Results
- Accelerated releases from every 2 weeks to multiple times per day
- Contributed to 10% revenue increase through faster feature delivery
- Reduced CI pipeline failures through automated testing
- Successfully integrated Apple Pay and Google Pay
AstraZeneca: Drug Delivery Tracking System MVP
Challenge
AstraZeneca needed to replace manual spreadsheet-based drug delivery tracking with a modern web-based tool to improve efficiency and accelerate time-to-market for pharmaceutical products. The system required integration with existing workflows while maintaining regulatory compliance.
Solution
We built a production-grade web application with REST APIs and automated CI/CD pipelines. Our team collaborated closely with stakeholders and business analysts to define requirements and align delivery with business goals. We architected scalable deployments on Kubernetes using Docker and Jenkins (config-as-code), establishing robust testing practices with JUnit and Spock.
Results
- Accelerated delivery by 40% compared to manual processes
- Cut deployment errors by 30% through automated pipelines
- Improved stakeholder confidence through transparent roadmap planning
- Delivered production-ready MVP on Kubernetes infrastructure
Want to see more examples of our work?
Let's discuss your projectHow We Work
A simple, three-step process to get you from idea to automated reality.
Assess
We start with a deep-dive discovery session to understand your vision, market, and technical constraints. Then we define a clear MVP scope and technical roadmap.
Architect
Before writing code, we set up IaC, CI/CD, and GitOps workflows. This foundation enables rapid, safe iteration from day one.
Automate
We launch your MVP with full observability, documentation, and knowledge transfer. You own the system and can iterate independently.
About Codenest
We've spent years engineering platforms in fast-moving startups — where every architectural choice can decide whether a product scales smoothly or collapses under pressure.
At Rungway, we were the core backend and DevOps team transforming a fragile system that could barely handle five concurrent users into a resilient platform serving thousands. That experience taught us one thing: structure enables speed.
Since then, we've led architectural migrations, designed microservice ecosystems with domain-driven design, built Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD pipelines from the ground up, and scaled databases under live production load. We've also worked shoulder-to-shoulder with founders, PMs, and engineers — turning business ideas into systems that deliver at scale.
Our core belief: The fastest teams aren't the ones who skip infrastructure — they're the ones who automate it.
That's why we build every system with GitOps, IaC, and observability from day one. It's how we help startups move fast without breaking things.
Speed comes from structure. Let's build yours.
Common Questions
How quickly can we start?
Most engagements start within 1-2 weeks after our initial discovery call. For urgent projects, we can mobilize faster.
Do you work with non-technical founders?
Absolutely. Many of our clients are first-time founders without technical backgrounds. We excel at translating technical concepts into clear business terms.
What's your tech stack expertise?
We specialize in cloud-native architectures (AWS, GCP), Kubernetes, Terraform, Python, Java, Postgres/Mysql, Gitops, and modern data/ML stacks. But our real value is in architectural thinking — we choose the right tools for your specific needs.
Do you offer ongoing support after delivery?
Yes. We offer retainer arrangements for post-launch support, scaling assistance, and continued technical leadership.
What makes you different from a dev shop?
Dev shops execute your specifications. We provide strategic technical leadership first — helping you figure out what to build, how to build it sustainably, and how to set up your team for long-term success.
Book a Free 30-Min Strategy Call
Book a free 30-minute discovery call. No sales pitch — just an honest conversation about your technical needs.