Fort Lee, N.J.-based Cross River Bank, a partner of large fintech companies like Affirm, Coinbase, Stripe and Transferwise, today acquired Seed, a startup that offers banking solutions for small businesses and sells its technology to banks. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
For Cross River Bank, the acquisition grows its product and service offerings for fintech companies and adds new expertise. Seed, which was founded in 2014, is headed up by Brian Merritt, former vice president of engineering at online bank Simple, and Ryan Hildebrand, who was vice president of finance at Simple.
“There are two reasons [for the acquisition],” said a spokesperson for Cross River Bank. “It’s partly the technology that Seed brings to the table, but it’s also the talent and the leadership, who we think will do a great job in helping to integrate Seed into Cross River’s current [technology] stack.”
The Seed acquisition will let Cross River expand its banking-as-a-service offerings. Through it, Cross River will be developing an integrated technology product and will begin offering it to clients in the coming months. Cross River has been ramping up its specialist recruitment, with recent hires drawn from online lender Laurel Road, which was acquired by KeyBank in April.
Cross River recently raised $100 million in funding, led by private equity firm KKR, with participation from CreditEase, LionTree Partners, Battery Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Ribbit Capital. The company, founded in 2008, strives to be a one-stop shop for fintech firms.
“This acquisition marks a significant milestone for Cross River that comes on the heels of our recent capital raise,” said CEO and chairman Gilles Gade in a statement. “It allows us to further strengthen our position as a leading provider of fintech solutions as we continue building and enhancing a complete banking platform, where companies can leverage best-in-class banking technologies with compliance excellence.”