Apiture is a company that empowers financial institutions to know and serve their clients with the care of a traditional community institution at the scale, speed, and efficiency required in today’s digital world. With over 300 clients throughout the U.S., Apiture delivers comprehensive online and mobile solutions that support banks and credit unions, ranging from small community financial institutions to new, innovative direct banks. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Apiture COO Chris Cox to learn more about the company.
Chris Cox’s Background
Cox has more than 20 years of experience in banking, payments, mobile commerce, product innovation, and technology strategy. And Cox said:
“Prior to the formation of Apiture in 2017, I was the General Manager of First Data’s digital banking business and led mobile payment product development efforts at First Data. Previously, I was a Principal Consultant at Diamond Management & Technology Consultants and a Staff Consultant at CSC Consulting. I have a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Miami University and an MBA from Duke University.”
“As the Chief Operating Officer of Apiture, I oversee our technology, product, innovation, customer support, and professional services teams.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Cox explained:
“Apiture provides digital banking solutions to community and regional financial institutions throughout the US. The Apiture Digital Banking Platform includes five solutions:
— Consumer Banking
— Business Banking
— Account Opening
— API Banking
— Data Intelligence
Our platform integrates with more than 40 cores and 200 best-of-breed fintech partners. We also invest heavily in R&D, resulting in highly innovative solutions that help our clients compete effectively with large, national financial institutions.”
“Our solutions are hosted in the cloud, which results in industry-leading availability and performance, including 99.996% uptime. Because we have a true SaaS platform, our clients are always using the latest version of our software, which means there is no need for them to go through an upgrade process to take advantage of the latest features of our software.”
“Apiture also has a unique Client Development Request (CDR) program that enables clients to request specific features or integrations that are important to them. We have development teams dedicated to completing these requests, which means we can deliver the innovation that’s most important to our clients very quickly, without impacting our product roadmap.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Cox reflected:
“I’ve been with Apiture since the very beginning, leading the formation of the business in 2017. There have been so many great memories over the last 6 years. If I had to pick a favorite, I would say it was the day we moved into our new headquarters in downtown Wilmington, NC. The excitement was palpable as the team explored our new space and realized the opportunity we had to work together to build the best digital banking business in the world.”
Evolution Of Apiture’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Cox noted:
“Apiture was formed in 2017 as a spinoff from First Data and Live Oak Bank to provide digital banking solutions to community and regional financial institutions.”
“In 2019, Apiture moved our consumer and business banking solutions from a private data center environment to the public cloud, AWS. Hosting our software in AWS, as noted above, has resulted in industry-leading availability and performance, including only 19 minutes of unscheduled downtime in 2022.”
“In 2021, we released a completely overhauled consumer banking UI and mobile app. Today our app is the #1-rated mobile banking app in the industry.”
“Apiture launched the Apiture Digital Banking Platform in early 2022. At this time, we expanded our solutions to include Account Opening, API Banking, and Data Intelligence in addition to our Consumer and Business Banking solutions.”
“This year, we have continued to evolve each of our solutions through internal development efforts and integrations with fintech partners. Recent partner integrations include family banking through a partnership with Greenlight, the family banking app for kids and teens; Business Insights through an integration with Monit, a cash flow analysis, forecasting, and guidance platform; and real-time fraud detection through an integration with DefenseStorm, provider of built-for-banking cyber risk and fraud solutions.”
“We have also continued to enhance our five solutions through internal development efforts. In 2023, our API Banking solution has enabled our clients to embed banking capabilities – such as opening a new account, checking balances, or transferring funds – within partners’ software. An embedded banking strategy helps financial institutions reach customers beyond their traditional website or app.”
“We have also evolved our Data Intelligence solution to include a range of capabilities for institutions to drive their data strategy. Options include a no-code toolkit to understand user behavior and drive digital banking engagement as well as an intuitive analysis tool that lets institutions create highly relevant, personalized campaigns. We also offer a number of different integration options to allow institutions with in-house engineering teams or technology partners to build data pipelines, run automations, create reports, etc.”
Funding
After asking Cox about the company’s funding information, he revealed:
“Apiture has raised $79 million in funding since our founding in 2017. This includes our recent $10 million insider round led by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc., with participation from other existing investors. It is worth noting that our investors include clients who also use our software. Their investment underscores the strength of Apiture’s solutions in a competitive market.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Cox assessed:
“We serve banks and credit unions of all sizes, primarily targeting financial institutions with assets ranging from $150 million to $40 billion.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Cox affirmed:
“Apiture is unique in that we are exclusively focused on digital banking, so 100% of our resources and R&D is dedicated to delivering modern, innovative solutions to our clients. More than 1/3 of our revenue is invested in R&D.”
“Our clients also benefit from the experience of our team. More than 70% of our employees have worked for a bank or credit union, so we understand our clients’ business because we have walked in their shoes.”
“We couple our unique Client Development Request progress, as noted above, with an API-first strategy, which enables us to rapidly integrate with fintech partners, so our clients can take advantage of the innovation happening throughout the fintech ecosystem.”
“Our mission is to empower financial institutions to know and serve their clients with the care of a traditional community institution at the scale, speed, and efficiency required in today’s digital world. We pride ourselves on delivering exceptional service to our clients, giving them the same level of care and attention that they provide to their own customers. In addition to a dedicated customer success manager and project manager, all Apiture clients have unprecedented access to our leadership and product teams, which is unique in our industry.”
“We’ve been fortunate to be recognized with a number of industry awards since introducing the Apiture Digital Banking Platform, including being named the Breadth of Functionality Winner for both Retail and Small Business Digital Banking Platforms by analyst firm Celent. We were also named an Overall Leader by Javelin in its most recent Digital Banking and Small Business Digital Banking Scorecards. Most recently we were named the Gold Winner for Embedded Finance Innovation by Juniper Research in its Future Digital Awards and were honored by IBS Intelligence for Most Effective Bank-Fintech Partnership in its Global FinTech Innovation Awards.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Cox concluded:
“We will continue to expand the capabilities of the Apiture Digital Banking Platform through internal development and integrations with best-of-breed third-party partners. We’re also working to help our clients empower their consumer and business customers with digital banking solutions that help them bank more easily, with less friction, wherever they are. We see a future where digital banking shifts from a purely transactional experience to one that is highly personalized and consultative, and we’re excited to bring this vision to life for our clients.”
