Community Bank Acquires SMB Digital Bank Seed

Community financial institution (FI) Cross River Bank is acquiring Seed, a small business (SMB) digital banking company, reports in Reuters said on Monday (June 24).

Cross River Bank has partnered with a range of FinTech startups since its 2008 launch, including collaborations with Stripe, Coinbase and Affirm, reports said. Its takeover of Seed strengthens its position in the small business FinTech market.

Seed members will be migrated to Cross River as the community bank expands with new offices in California and Oregon. Furthermore, Cross River will integrate the digital bank’s technology into its own offerings with small business clients over the next several months. Reports noted that the bank declined to disclose financial details of the takeover.

“Our vision is to become a one-stop shop for the FinTech industry,” said Cross River Founder, Chairman and CEO Gilles Gade in a statement. “The acquisition of Seed will expand our current offerings, and allows us to provide clients with even more options.”

The publication noted that FinTech firms collaborating with Cross River are able to take advantage of the community bank’s Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) membership, using the FI to connect with traditional financial and banking infrastructures without having to go through the process of securing their own FDIC licenses.

Its acquisition of Seed follows last year’s $100 million private equity investment raise, led by KKR & Co Inc., reports said.

“This is a very strong signal that we continue to execute on our plan, and are poised to take Cross River through its next phase of successful development here in the U.S. and across the globe,” Gage said in a statement at the time of the funding announcement.

Seed released research in 2017 that highlighted the role of mobile-first banking solutions for SMBs. The research found that more than half of SMBs surveyed said they lacked access to “an intuitive, simple mobile banking app,” with 65 percent reporting that their current banks did not offer phone or in-app messaging support.

“The lack of mobile banking support makes it impossible for those business owners to manage their businesses on the go, and leads to unnecessary time spent in a branch,” Seed concluded in its report.