Dustin Hubbard, president of Archway
Redmond-based Archway — a fintech startup whose platform enables community and regional banks to easily integrate their core banking products into the latest web, mobile, voice, and artificial intelligence technologies — announced Tuesday that it raised $15 million in Series A funding led by WaFd Bank and venture capital firm Madrona.
Archway, formerly known as Pike Street Labs, emerged out of WaFd and was featured last year in 425 Business.
There are more than 10,000 community and regional banks in the United States hampered by the lack of technology to compete with their national and global counterparts, according to the news release announcing the funding. Archway aims to bring big-bank digital features to other banks.
“The consumer fintech revolution has reimagined what is possible for banks, but the technology is hard to build and expensive to integrate,” Dustin Hubbard, Archway’s president, said in the release. “Banking infrastructure is heavily regulated, and many banks have systems that work well for the business of running the bank but are not optimized for customer service, which puts the bank at a disadvantage. With a cloud-native approach, we are abstracting the complexity for banks and enabling them to integrate the technologies their consumers want easily.”
Steve Singh, Madrona managing director, added, “In a world where consumers can bank anywhere and expect Uber- and Amazon-like banking experiences, the banking community needs a platform that can serve both the bank’s business needs and the needs and desires of its current and future customers. Archway has already proven its ability to build and deploy services that banks and consumers want, and we are excited to partner with the team to continue to build.”
Singh has joined the Archway board of directors as part of Madrona’s funding.
WaFd Bank CEO Brent Beardall and Singh, Archway’s chairman, recognized the need to build a robust technology layer that would ensure the continued growth of WaFd Bank and also saw that the industry needed the solution across the country.
Beardall said WaFd Bank has built personalized high-value banking relationships with its customers and, with Archway, is doing that in a technology-first environment that enables the highest customer service and employee satisfaction.
“Technology can and should drive improved client experience, stronger controls, and more efficiency,” he said in the release. “I have heard from banks around the country that what we have started to build is the solution they have been looking for, and we are excited to back Dustin and the team as they roll out solutions for WaFd and other banks.”
