How Kikin Cut CAC by 50% and Scaled Faster with Apideck’s Unified API

The Company

Kikin is a UK-based fintech platform that offers supply chain finance to small and medium-sized businesses, specifically those focused on sustainability and social impact. By providing non-dilutive funding, Kikin helps purpose-led companies grow without giving up equity.

Their customers are often B Corp-certified, part of “1% for the Planet,” or aligned with similar sustainability frameworks. To serve them effectively, Kikin needed to create a seamless, fast, and fully digital financing experience—one that relied heavily on accessing accounting data directly from the source.

The Challenge

From day one, Kikin’s product vision included integrating directly with customer accounting platforms like Xero and QuickBooks. It was the only way to automate underwriting and deliver the kind of frictionless experience their audience expected.

But building those integrations in-house was a non-starter.

Supporting even a single accounting integration can be a large lift. Supporting multiple—each with its own structure, features, and quirks—would have been an exponential effort for a lean engineering team.

Kikin initially turned to a third-party integration provider, but as that vendor’s product strategy shifted, the partnership became less aligned. The provider began steering customers toward their own pipeline infrastructure—something Kikin had already built internally. Adopting it would have meant unnecessary complexity and higher costs for features they didn’t need. As the offering became more rigid and pricing less favorable, it was clear that a change was needed.

That triggered a search for a better fit.

The Solution

Apideck stood out as the right partner. Its Unified API gave Kikin the ability to connect with popular accounting platforms without having to worry about implementation differences. More importantly, Apideck allowed them to retain control over the product experience, pricing scaled with usage, and unnecessary features weren’t forced into the workflow.

Despite having a small team, Kikin shipped its first live integration within three months of signing up with Apideck. They implemented connectors for Xero and QuickBooks, which together serve more than 95% of their customer base.

Today, all accounting integrations run through Apideck’s Unified Accounting API.

The Results

Switching to Apideck had both user-facing and business-level benefits.

One of the most noticeable improvements was in user onboarding. Previously, customers were redirected to third-party systems to complete their integration setup, creating friction in a key moment of the customer journey. With Apideck, the entire process now happens inside the Kikin platform, reducing drop-off risk and keeping the user experience consistent.

That smoother journey translated into stronger acquisition performance.

Kikin reduced its customer acquisition cost by approximately 50%. With Apideck’s flexible pricing and lean setup, they no longer had to absorb the cost of unused or unwanted features.

Apideck's Impact

Beyond the initial integration, Apideck helped Kikin build a more scalable and maintainable foundation for future growth.

The developer experience was straightforward. Apideck’s Unified API eliminated the need to manage the nuances of each accounting platform. The dashboard and audit tools added visibility, making it easier to troubleshoot and manage integrations over time. When challenges appeared, the Apideck team responded quickly, including shipping a feature request during onboarding. Support was responsive, documentation was clear, and the overall process stayed friction-free.

Kikin also appreciated that if a customer were to request support for a feature outside the current connector coverage, they could rely on Apideck to work with them to make it happen. “If I had a high-value customer come to me asking for a feature that wasn’t supported, I know I could talk to Apideck and they’d do what they could to make that coverage available,” Antony Woods, CTO at Kikin, shared.

Apideck also doesn’t over-engineer the product or pressure teams to use features they don’t need. Instead, it delivers a stable, reliable integration layer that adapts to how modern SaaS products are built.

Conclusion

Kikin’s integration journey is a clear example of how the right platform can remove friction, reduce costs, and accelerate product delivery. By partnering with Apideck, Kikin was able to:

• Reduce CAC by ~50%

• Maintain full control of the user journey with no redirects or workflow compromises

• Improve user onboarding and retention

• Avoid the complexity of managing accounting APIs in-house

With future plans to expand into Ecommerce and File Storage integrations, Kikin has a flexible, developer-friendly foundation in place, ready to support scale. Apideck helped them focus on what really matters: serving the businesses building a better future.

When asked if he would recommend Apideck to others, Antony said: “Absolutely. It’s very easy to get up and running. The auditing tools give us full visibility, and we’re able to use connector-specific features where needed without hassle. For any company looking to implement integrations, Apideck is a great product worth evaluating.”

To companies considering building integrations in-house, his advice is clear: “Unless you have a very, very niche use case, I wouldn’t do it. I’ve done in-house integrations before—it was a nightmare. In a heartbeat, I’d go with an integration provider like Apideck.”