Ribbon is a company that provides credit unions with a digital inheritance/estate platform that streamlines beneficiary claims while helping retain deposits and deliver a more supportive experience for grieving families. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Ribbon co-founder and CEO Saeid Kian to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Saeid Kian’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Kian said:
“I was born in the U.S. to Iranian parents who fled the Iranian Revolution. When I graduated from college, I moved to Southeast Asia, where I worked in development work aid agencies, consulting for large development organizations like the World Bank, the ILO, and the IFC. I then relocated to Myanmar, pivoting to fintech, where I led a team of engineers to develop and launch the country’s first regulated mobile money app, Wave Money.”
“My subsequent roles included product management and heading the operator programs for the APAC region at Meta (then known as Facebook), in addition to a stint at Stripe as a Technical Program Manager. While I was living in Singapore, during covid, I got a call from my father who told us he was diagnosed with Stage Four Pancreatic cancer, which prompted my return to the U.S.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Kian shared:
“The road to Ribbon certainly wasn’t an easy one. In the aftermath of my father’s passing, I found myself navigating the logistical nightmare of inheritance. My dad had been a member of a credit union, and sorting out his finances was my first exposure to credit unions. Unfortunately, it was a nightmare of an experience that was studded with countless repetitive paperwork, unnecessary offline processes, and endless back and forth to resolve the simplest of accounts. It was a stark wake-up call to how broken inheritance handling is among credit unions, especially for those in the depths of grief.”
“So, my co-founder and I set off on a mission, asking individuals who had also lost loved ones, credit unions, financial executives, and more, to get to the bottom of why the process is so much harder than it has to be. We discovered that the biggest hurdles to delivering an excellent experience were how time-consuming the process is and the cost. It’s creating a lose-lose situation for credit unions and customers alike: Those individuals who come out on the other end of a nightmare experience usually take their deposits elsewhere.”
“I did a deep dive into credit unions and found that almost 50% of credit union deposits belong to members aged 65 and up. Around 1-2% of credit union members pass away each year, and, to put it into perspective, if a credit union has 100,000 members, that’s at least 1,000 lost deposit relationships on an annual basis. That usually translates to around 3-5% of their deposits.”
“That’s when we decided to bring Ribbon to life to do something about these gaps and help credit unions boost their deposit retention rates. We knew we needed to introduce an easily integrated platform that would empower financial institutions in managing inheritance processes and estate centers that are easy, accessible, and affordable. This ultimately eases the burden on customers who are already grappling with the turmoil of devastating loss, convincing them to stay rather than walk out the credit union’s doors.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Kian reflected:
“This gets me quite emotional. I just think about some of the conversations and messages I’ve had. People who call me and tell me in tears how hard it was for them when they lost their spouse, parent, or sibling. I’ve gotten messages from friends who are still grieving over lost loved ones. It’s not my ‘favorite’ in that it brings me joy, but it’s the most meaningful and treasured because it reminds me that what Ribbon is doing is worth pursuing.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Kian explained:
“Ribbon tries to solve for three things: member experience, operational efficiency, and deposit retention.”
“Ribbon’s product is an SaaS platform that has been developed to drive empathy, efficiency, and ease of use for financial institutions and inheritors alike. Our technology enables financial institutions to launch their own inheritance center, allowing them to retain deposits, lower operational costs, and improve member experience.”
“Our SaaS platform digitizes the inheritance process from A to Z. It’s designed to help credit unions and other financial institutions slash a process that usually takes as long as 12 months to just a couple of weeks. Ribbon’s software also includes widgets that can be embedded into companies’ websites.”
“Rather than having to travel to an office, inheritors can simply access an online admin portal to upload their information and relevant documents to the platform and close accounts. This is available in the ‘Inheritors tab’ within a single view for ops teams. Documents are quickly verified via Ribbon’s embedded AI tools and natural language processing, saving financial institutions massive amounts of time and manpower in terms of operations. This also addresses key challenges around fragmented information, which has been a serious barrier to credit unions and other financial institutions being able to drive personalization at scale.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Kian acknowledged:
“Core connection and setting up automated systems have proven key challenges. These are large legacy institutions that hold the most sensitive information for Americans. They are not built for speed, but for security. Each project with them typically involves open tickets, multiple rounds of emails, and more.”
“Thanks to iterative feedback and a rigorous approach to standardizing our requests, we’ve managed to cut setup timeframes from roughly five months to about four to six weeks.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Kian noted:
“Our technology now has core connectivity thanks to our recent partnership with PortX, a leading integration platform for credit unions, banks, fintechs, and core banking systems. This partnership has helped us streamline inheritance workflows and achieve a more seamless integration of our platform with core banking providers like Jack Henry, FIS, and Fiserv. It’s enabled Ribbon to automate workflows related to deceased accounts and automatically open new accounts, and retain inheritance-related deposits. Moreover, we can now automate inheritance via a membership.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Kian cited:
“Our partnership with PortX is definitely a major milestone because it makes Ribbon’s services more accessible to families and individuals who really need this robust and streamlined infrastructure in one of the most difficult moments of their lives.”
“Our partnership with First City Credit Union really launched us. Their leadership team, like CEO Nav Khanna, CMO Royce Ngiam, COO Sam Tate, and CIO Lix Anderson, is unbelievable. They took a chance on us when we had no customers, because they believed in what we were doing and deeply cared about their members.”
“Additionally, our recent partnership with First U.S. Community Credit Union is another memorable milestone for Ribbon. It’s a valuable opportunity for Ribbon to help transform the customer experience of First U.S. Community Credit Union’s 28,000 members across 12 counties.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Kian highlighted:
“Our partnership with First City Credit Union will have a case study coming out soon. We’re still collecting the data, but what we’re seeing early on is hugely promising. To put it in perspective, we’re starting to see the majority of inheritance cases shift to being done online. They have a ton of things they want to accomplish with member experience, and we’re gearing up to launch even more features with them.”
Funding
Are you able to discuss funding? Kian revealed:
“Definitely one of our biggest, if not the most significant, milestones was when we raised $2.7 million in pre-seed funding led by One Way Ventures and Haymaker Ventures. The pre-seed also included angels such as the ex-GC of Stripe Jon Zieger, ex-GC of Calm Jacques Lehot, and CEO of Polywork Peter Johnston. This incredible support from industry veterans speaks volumes about the pressing needs and industry woes we’re on a mission to address.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Kian assessed:
“We’re going after The Great Wealth Transfer. This is the largest transfer of wealth in history and we want to make sure anyone who loses a loved one does not have to waste time on logistics. We think even if we capture a fraction of a percent, it will make us one of the largest start-ups in the country.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Kian affirmed:
“Nobody can do what we do the way we do it. We were born from experience. Ribbon is a tool built for the teams that work on deceased accounts, from beginning to end. It was created to make empathy the rule, not the exception, in handling inheritance and estates. Our very technology is designed with that human experience in mind, ensuring that compassion, personalization, and empathy are consistently delivered without burdening operations teams.”
“We build in AI to every corner that’s relevant, meaning we can have a ticket on an inheritance case closed in minutes.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Kian emphasized:
“We’re continuing to think bigger, actively seeking out opportunities to improve inheritance handling for more financial institutions across the country. Our goal is to drive a personalized, empathetic, and streamlined experience for each inheritor while minimizing the operational burdens on financial institutions as much as possible.”
“We’re also aiming to automate workflows for deposit operations and drive top-line deposit retention for credit unions by at least 5% in the next two years.”
“Beyond that, we expect to grow our team, build out more features and products, and strengthen our market presence.”
Prioritizing The Great Wealth Transfer
Why do financial institutions need to prioritize The Great Wealth Transfer? Kian concluded:
“If you aren’t familiar with the term, The Great Wealth Transfer refers to the $124 trillion of wealth transferred between generations, the biggest of its kind yet. A record amount of wealth is moving from Baby Boomers to younger generations. In the midst of this transfer, the financial institutions that prioritize a positive experience for younger inheritors—most of whom are millennials—are the ones who will come out on top.”
“Credit Unions face an existential risk over the coming decades if they fail to be a part of this massive wealth transfer. They need to think holistically in their approach to this phenomenon, considering existing relationships and members’ financial plans in addition to prioritizing estate services and inheritance centers. Providing services in a streamlined and digitalized manner is a must for credit unions and financial institutions that want to create a positive and meaningful experience with tech-savvy younger generations like millennials. By doing so, credit unions can align their resources with the next decades of wealth transition and ensure they’re providing stellar experiences for younger generations, which is crucial to retaining those individuals as customers.”
