We're a technology studio tackling friction in payments, advertising, and civic engagement through AI-powered, privacy-native solutions.
Five products addressing real friction in overlooked markets
Eliminating card network fees for merchants through Open Banking-powered tap-to-pay. Direct bank transfers at the point of sale, saving retailers 1.5-3% per transaction.
The Problem: UK merchants pay £8B+ annually in card processing fees. Open Banking enables free bank transfers, but no one has built seamless POS checkout.
Architecture: iOS vendor app with NFC tap-to-pay triggers Open Banking payment initiation. Go backend handles payment orchestration, webhook processing, and real-time transaction status. Stripe Terminal integration for hybrid card/A2A acceptance. PostgreSQL for transaction records, Redis for session management.
App Screenshots:
On-device cohort computation for iOS game publishers. Targeting without device IDs leaving the device. Built for the post-ATT world where legacy ad networks are flying blind.
The Problem: Apple's ATT killed device-level targeting. Publishers lost 30-50% of ad revenue. We compute privacy-safe cohorts on-device, enabling precision targeting without privacy compromise.
Architecture: iOS SDK with on-device ML computes 10 privacy-safe cohorts (engagement tier, monetization likelihood, retention stage, etc.). Go backend handles ad auctions, SKAN postback processing, and real-time analytics. NATS messaging for event streaming. Clean room architecture ensures no raw device data leaves the device.
Platform Screenshots:
AI-powered platform for reporting and resolving neighborhood issues. Photo-based reporting, community consensus voting, and automated formal complaint generation to the right agencies.
The Problem: Neighborhood maintenance complaints go into black holes. No tracking, no consensus, no accountability. We aggregate community voice and route to property managers, municipalities, and utilities.
Architecture: WhatsApp/Telegram bots for photo submission. Gemini Vision analyzes images for issue classification and severity. GPT-4 generates formal complaint letters. FastAPI backend handles multi-agency routing and status tracking. Web portal for community managers.
Bot Screenshots:
Automatic music discovery for live events. Background audio capture, on-device fingerprinting, and instant playlist export to Spotify/Apple Music the moment you leave the venue.
The Problem: 40M+ live music attendees lose their soundtracks. Shazam fails at concerts (crowd noise, DJ edits, live versions). We capture 4+ hours passively and identify tracks using hybrid fingerprinting + LLM analysis.
Architecture: iOS/Android apps with background audio capture and on-device fingerprinting via ACRCloud. Go backend processes unidentified tracks through Whisper transcription and LLM-based song matching. AWS S3 for audio storage, PostgreSQL for metadata.
App Screenshots (TestFlight):
Customizable interval timer for workouts, study sessions, meditation, and focused work. Beautiful UI with presets, music integration, and session history tracking.
The Problem: Generic timers don't understand different activity types. FocusLock provides purpose-built timing modes for work intervals, rest periods, and structured sessions with motivating sounds and visual feedback.
Features: Custom work/rest intervals, preset templates (Pomodoro, HIIT, meditation), Spotify and Apple Music integration, session history and statistics, premium subscription for advanced features.
Each product targets a specific, measurable pain point
UK merchants lose 1.5-3% on every card transaction. Open Banking enables near-zero-cost transfers, but the UX gap at checkout remains unsolved. PayFlow bridges that gap.
iOS 14.5 broke mobile advertising. Publishers can't target, advertisers can't measure. The $70B iOS ad market needs privacy-native infrastructure, not retrofitted legacy systems.
Residents report issues that vanish into bureaucratic void. No status tracking, no community consensus, no accountability. CleanStreets makes the invisible visible.
40M+ concert-goers can't remember what songs played. Shazam fails in loud venues, DJ sets are mysteries, and that incredible track is gone forever. GigPlaylist captures it all passively.
Cloud-native, privacy-first, built for scale
Google Cloud / AWS
Go & Python
Swift & Kotlin
PostgreSQL & Redis
NATS Messaging
Gemini & GPT-4
On-Device ML
ACRCloud & Whisper
AWS S3 & Docker
HeliosNexu is a technology studio focused on building infrastructure products that reduce friction in overlooked markets.
We believe the best opportunities exist where:
Based in London, we're in active development across all four products, targeting UK and Nordic markets for initial launch.
We leverage AI-assisted development to move fast while maintaining code quality, and design privacy-first from day one rather than retrofitting compliance later.
Rajesh Nagarjunan — Software engineer with 30 years of experience building high-performance systems:
Applying decades of building mission-critical, scalable systems to create privacy-first products for overlooked markets.