Fluz Builds a Magical Rewards Experience on Highnote

How Fluz partnered with Highnote to transform from a gift card seller into a modern, embedded financial experience delivering rewards, spend management, and magical moments at scale.

The Vision: Turning Rewards Into a Business Model

What started as a side hustle selling gift cards online quickly evolved into something much bigger for Maurice Harary, CEO and Founder of Fluz.

“I just thought gift cards with cashback was a clever product to sell online,” Maurice recalls. “But over time, we realized it wasn’t about selling gift cards. It was about rewarding people for how they pay.”

That insight sparked a bold pivot. Fluz would stop treating rewards as a feature, and instead reimagine them as the foundation of a digital wallet and expense platform. The goal: to give businesses and consumers a seamless way to pay, get rewarded, and feel like they’re experiencing something almost magical.

But to pull it off, Fluz needed more than a new idea. They needed an entirely new infrastructure.

The Challenge: Reinventing the Stack

Building a rewards-driven card experience meant stepping into a world of complexity. Fluz had to navigate compliance, partner with regulated banks, orchestrate payouts, and issue physical and virtual cards, all while offering real-time rewards and seamless user experiences.

“We went from selling products to operating with sponsor banks and regulated infrastructure,” Maurice said. “It required us to completely reinvent how we thought about our business.”

Fluz had tried working directly with sponsor banks and other issuing platforms, but faced rigidity, disconnects between sales and implementation, and technical limitations. What they needed was a partner that not only delivered modern infrastructure, but shared their obsession with product quality, speed, and relentless improvement.

The Solution: A True Product Platform Partner in Highnote

From the first conversation, Highnote stood out.

“Highnote’s API was hands-down the best our engineering team had worked with, and I didn’t even ask them to compare. That was unsolicited praise.” Maurice Harary, CEO at Fluz

But it wasn’t just about the tech. It was the partnership.

“What made Highnote different was how invested the team was, not just in getting us live, but in understanding our product, staying hands-on, and making sure every detail was right. We’re years in, and we still have weekly calls with our customer success manager. There’s never a week where there’s nothing to talk about.”

Highnote’s platform helped Fluz go live in just four months. A process that typically takes 12–18 months. From collaborative authentication to real-time rewards and multi-card orchestration, Highnote provided the architecture and the partnership to bring Fluz’s product vision to life.

Results: A Seamless, Scalable Rewards Engine

Today, Fluz offers its customers an embedded experience that feels effortless, with powerful architecture behind the scenes:

• Multi-Card Optimization: Fluz uses Highnote’s tools to analyze merchant-level interchange data and optimize card routing across different BINs and networks. That means more revenue, and more rewards for users.
• Invisible Switching: Moving between card types or networks is seamless. “It’s so smooth, we don’t even think about it,” Maurice said. “You made it invisible.”
• Resilience Through Partnership: When issues arise (even tiny AVS mismatches) Highnote proactively flags and resolves them in minutes, not months.

“Without Highnote, we wouldn’t have been able to deliver some of the magical experiences we’ve built,” said Maurice. “They’re not just a vendor — they’re a force multiplier.”

What’s Next: Scaling Rewards, Embedding More Magic

Fluz is now expanding into payouts and acquiring, continuing to embed new financial experiences into their platform.

“Whenever we want to build something new, it just feels natural to do it with Highnote,” Maurice said. “We’re excited about what’s next — and we know we’ve got the right partner to help us get there.”