Narmi is a financial technology company that provides an integrated digital banking platform for community banks and credit unions. Its Narmi One platform supports consumer and business digital banking, account opening, card management, and administrative operations, while incorporating artificial intelligence tools to improve efficiency and customer experiences. Co-founded by Nikhil Lakhanpal and Chris Griffin, the company focuses on helping regional and community financial institutions compete with larger banks and fintech companies through modern, customizable technology. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Narmi Co-Founder Nikhil Lakhanpal to learn more about the company’s origins, digital banking technology, practical AI applications, customer success stories, and its recent Innovators Retreat in Detroit.
Nikhil Lakhanpal’s Background
When asked about his background, Lakhanpal shared:
While I was a student at Georgetown University, I served as CEO of the Georgetown University Alumni & Student Federal Credit Union (GUASFCU), one of the largest student-run credit unions in the country. That experience shaped everything that came after.
I got to see up close how much a community institution means to the people it serves, and also how hard it is for those institutions to keep up on technology. After graduating, I went into investment banking at Citigroup, which gave me a very different view of the industry from the other side.
I grew up in New Jersey and now live in New York City, which is home to Narmi’s headquarters and, in my opinion, the fintech capital of the world.
How The Idea For Narmi Came Together
When asked how the idea for Narmi originated, Lakhanpal explained:
It goes back to my time running GUASFCU. I pushed through our own digital overhaul, but I kept running into the same wall. The vendor landscape was so disjointed that no matter how hard we worked, the digital experience we could offer just wasn’t good enough. Later, at Citi, I saw what technology looks like when an institution has massive resources behind it, and the gap between the two worlds stuck with me.
So 10 years ago, Chris Griffin and I started Narmi based on a simple belief: regional and community financial institutions deserve world-class technology so they can compete with the mega banks and fintechs.
Instead of another point solution, we set out to build a single, highly integrated digital platform that gives institutions everything they need in one place. Since then, I’ve met in person with more than 1,000 financial institutions, and those conversations have shaped everything we build.
Favorite Memories Working At Narmi
When asked about his favorite memories working at the company, Lakhanpal said:
My favorite memories are when customers call or email me out of the blue and tell me “don’t change a thing.” In reality, they don’t mean this literally, but validation of the product and culture we have built here is incredibly motivating to keep building.
Core Products And Features
When asked about Narmi’s core products and features, Lakhanpal explained:
Narmi One is a digital banking platform for community banks and credit unions, built to be deeply integrated and fully customizable for financial institutions. Our platform covers consumer and business online and mobile banking, digital account opening, real-time card management, and an admin console that gives the institution’s staff real control over their experience.
Because it’s one integrated platform that works natively with the cores our clients already run, institutions aren’t stitching together a dozen vendors to deliver the best banking experiences for their account holders and members.
Over the past couple of years we’ve also built practical applications of AI directly into the platform. That includes AI DecisionAssist, which helps staff review account applications faster, and MCP integrations with LLMs like Claude, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot to help financial institution staff and their users move more of their tasks onto what we think are the next big channels for banking.
Challenges In Bringing Practical AI To Community Banking
When asked about recent challenges in the financial technology sector and how Narmi has addressed them, Lakhanpal explained:
The biggest challenge today is the gap between AI hype and what a community institution can actually put into production. Every bank and credit union I talk to feels pressure to “do something with AI,” but they’re also rightly worried about accuracy, compliance, and their members’ trust.
Our answer has been to stay focused on practical AI. We pick real, specific pain points, like a staff member spending hours on application reviews or answering the same message twenty times a day, and we build tools that help with exactly that.
We keep humans in control, we’re transparent about how it works, and we share what we’ve learned, including what didn’t work. That approach has done more to win people over than any big promise could.
Significant Milestones And Funding
When asked about Narmi’s most significant milestones, Lakhanpal highlighted the company’s tenth anniversary, funding rounds, customer relationships, and deployment of AI technology:
This year we celebrated 10 years as a company, which is a big moment for Chris and me and for everyone who has helped build Narmi.
Along the way, raising our $20.4 million Series A led by NEA in early 2021, and then our $35 million Series B, led by Greycroft with NEA and Picus Capital in 2022, gave us the runway to really invest in the product.
We now work with institutions like Beacon Bank, the 85th largest bank in the U.S., Grasshopper Bank, CTBC USA, and Arrowhead Credit Union.
And getting our AI products into production with real institutions has been a big one for me, because it proved community banks and credit unions don’t have to wait for the big banks to go first.
Customer Success Stories
When asked about specific customer success stories, Lakhanpal discussed Narmi’s work with Beacon Bank, Grasshopper Bank, and First Citizens’ Federal Credit Union.
Beacon Bank, one of our longest partners, shows what speed and security look like together. When they launched Beacon One, their digital-first offering, they went live with deposit-switching in four weeks, something that would have taken over a year with a traditional provider.
When a fraud ring later tried to open 17 accounts from the same funding source, none got through. Since launch, Beacon One has driven 55% growth in deposits through digital channels.
Grasshopper Bank is where we got to do something nobody in banking had done before. Together, we built the MCP server that made Grasshopper the first U.S. bank to deploy an MCP server.
In plain terms, it lets their business clients securely connect their accounts to AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT and ask questions about their finances in plain English. A business owner can ask where their spending is going and get back a categorized expense breakdown with suggestions for optimizing spend, based on their actual transaction data.
The connection is read-only, and clients never have to share their banking password with the AI. Grasshopper has since become the first bank listed in Anthropic’s MCP Directory, so clients can find and connect it right inside Claude. It’s a great example of a community-sized institution leading on AI instead of waiting for the megabanks.
First Citizens’ Federal Credit Union in Massachusetts is one of my favorite AI stories, because we didn’t see it coming. Many of their members’ primary language is Portuguese or Spanish, and their contact center was relying on personal phones or whichever bilingual colleague was free to translate messages.
We built AI Secure Messages to help staff draft cleaner replies, but their team discovered it could translate incoming messages and help compose responses in the member’s language, all inside the platform.
Staff still review every reply before it goes out, which is exactly how we think AI should work. It’s what happens when you put practical tools in the hands of people who know their members best.
What Differentiates Narmi From Its Competition
When asked what differentiates Narmi from other digital banking technology providers, Lakhanpal identified three primary areas:
Three things. First, we’re built for community institutions. Every decision we make starts with what a bank or credit union actually needs to compete.
Second, it’s one integrated platform. Institutions shouldn’t have to manage a patchwork of vendors to deliver a great experience, and they shouldn’t have to worry that their digital banking will be outdated in two years.
Third, our approach to AI. We’re not chasing flashy demos. We build practical tools that save staff real time, keep a human in charge of every decision, and are honest about what the technology can and can’t do.
Why Detroit Was Selected For The Innovators Retreat
When asked why Detroit was chosen to host Narmi’s Innovators Retreat for the first time and how the city connected to the event’s themes, Lakhanpal explained:
Detroit is a city that knows something about reinvention. It has gone through enormous change and rebuilt itself through community, local investment, and a lot of grit, which is very much the story of community banking right now.
This year, we dedicated an entire day to Practical AI, and we wanted the room thinking about how institutions can adopt new technology while staying rooted in the communities they serve. Detroit was a natural backdrop for that conversation.
Hosting at the Shinola Hotel, a brand that has built something modern on top of local craftsmanship, fit that theme too.
Key Takeaways From The Innovators Retreat
When asked what he hoped attendees would take away from the event and what he believed the gathering accomplished, Lakhanpal shared:
More than anything, I hoped people would leave with new relationships and a few conversations they keep thinking about.
Every institution we work with is different. They serve different communities, run on different cores, and have their own ideas about what digital banking should do for their users. Our platform is built to flex around that, and the only way to get it right is to really know the people on the other side.
Innovators Retreat is one of the rare times we get to sit down with so many of them in person, hear what’s working and what isn’t, and talk about where they want to go next. A lot of what we build starts in conversations just like those.
We want to be partners to the institutions we serve, and I think it goes both ways. When bankers and credit union leaders take time out of their schedules to fly to Detroit and spend a few days with us and with each other, that’s a real vote of confidence in the relationship.
We were also open about what we’ve built, what worked, and what we learned the hard way, because honest conversations are what make those relationships last.
This was our 6th Innovators Retreat and our largest yet, with more than 120 bankers, credit union leaders, and partners in the room, and I’m really proud of that. To me, that growth is the clearest sign that the relationships are working.
How Detroit Influenced Conversations About Innovation
When asked whether hosting the event in Detroit created new conversations or perspectives that might have been different in another city, Lakhanpal said:
I think it has certainly grounded things. It’s easy to talk about innovation in the abstract, but being in a city that has had to rebuild from the ground up made the conversations feel more practical.
People talked less about technology for its own sake and more about what it means for the members, businesses, and neighborhoods on the other side of it.
Encouraging Collaboration Among Banks, Credit Unions And Fintech Leaders
When asked what types of connections and collaboration Narmi hoped to encourage among the banks, credit unions, fintech leaders, and other attendees, Lakhanpal explained:
Honestly, the hallway conversations are often the best part. Community banks and credit unions are facing a lot of the same challenges, and they don’t always get the chance to compare notes outside their own region.
We wanted bankers and credit union leaders to share what’s working, fintech partners to hear directly what institutions need, and everyone to leave with a few people they can call when they’re working through something hard.
Future Goals
When asked about Narmi’s future goals, Lakhanpal emphasized expanding the company’s practical AI capabilities while maintaining its commitment to community financial institutions:
Narmi exists to enable community financial institutions to win against mega banks and fintechs. That hasn’t changed in 10 years, and it’s what drives our goals for the next 10.
In the near term, that means continuing to bring practical AI into the platform, helping staff spend less time on repetitive work and more time with the people they serve, and making it easier for institutions to connect their data to the AI tools they choose.
I want to show that community institutions can be at the front of this shift, not behind it.
