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Castellum bills itself as the only financial crimes compliance platform with in-house risk data, AML/KYC screening and AI agents. Piatetsky, a former U.S. Treasury sanctions officer, began Castellum in 2019 with a contrarian premise: that the hardest part of compliance software is not workflow orchestration or flashy user interfaces, but reliable data.
Castellum.AI, the only financial crime compliance platform with in-house risk data, AML/KYC screening and AI agents, announced the close of an oversubscribed $8.5m Series A round. The round was led by Curql, a fund backed by over 130 credit unions including Navy Federal, with participation from BTech Consortium, a fund backed by over a dozen banks including Customers Bank, and Framework Venture Partners, a fund backed by Tier 1 Canadian financial institutions including RBC. Existing investors from Spider Capital, Remarkable Ventures and Cameron Ventures also participated in the round.
Vikar Technologies Secures Series A Funding Led by Btech Consortium Fund & Verde Technology Ventures
Vikar Technologies (“Vikar”), a leading provider of innovative account opening and loan origination solutions for community banks and credit unions, is excited to announce the successful completion of its Series A funding round. The round was jointly led by Btech Consortium Fund (“Btech”) and Verde Technology Ventures (“VTV”), two prominent investment firms dedicated to advancing technology solutions for community banks.
DefenseStorm, the leading provider of cyber risk management solutions and co-managed services to financial institutions, recently completed a Series C-1 raise. The round was led by a number of existing investor partners, including Georgian, Curql, and Live Oak Ventures. Joining the round is new investor the Btech Consortium Fund, a group of community banks leveraging technology to better serve their customers.
PortX, the leading financial infrastructure and integration technology company that provides open access to data and drives innovation for financial institutions with its Integration-Platform-as-a-Service (IPaaS), announced a strategic partnership with Plaid, the data network powering the digital financial ecosystem. This collaboration combines the power of PortX's digital core banking integration experience with Plaid’s industry-leading capabilities for connecting data between applications and bank accounts.
The Mission Driven Bank Fund, anchored by Microsoft and Truist, announces its first close of over $110 million. The more than 300 FDIC-insured Minority Depository Institutions and Community Development Financial Institution banks across the country are essential to expand access to financial services in unbanked and underbanked communities. The Fund will support MDIs and CDFIs through investments across assets, liabilities, equity, and off-balance sheet vehicles and offer technical services across strategic and operational areas.
PortX, a leader in integration and open banking for community financial institutions and fintechs, announced today the successful close of its Series B funding round, securing $16.5 million, co-led by FUSE, a Pacific Northwest-based venture capital firm, and Curql, a collective of forward-thinking credit unions. They are joined by BankTech Ventures, EJF Capital, and the Btech Consortium - all financial services-focused investment firms representing nearly 200 community financial institutions. Today’s announcement comes one year after the company secured $10M to close its Series A funding.
The Btech Consortium announced today the integration of True Digital’s Platform with Btech’s HUB portal used by the consortium's community bank members. The integration provides Btech’s bank members access to True Digital’s comprehensive industry database to streamline vendor optimization and make more informed decisions surrounding vendor relationships and investments.
In 2021, business-to-business payments-market revenue was valued at $903 billion and is projected to reach $1.618 trillion by 2028. While these payments are an important service provided by community banks, existing B2B payment technology is not keeping up with customer expectations and innovation from fintechs. This is due to the many challenges associated with B2B payments: cost, speed, security, flexibility, conditional payment triggers dependent on the delivery of goods, and the ability to match the paperwork.
While large public banks possess substantial resources, many of them are currently preoccupied with risk mitigation and industry damage control. I believe that smaller community and private banks, which have remained largely unscathed from the public fall-out, are uniquely positioned to leverage their superior customer service to gain market share. I also see smaller banks as more agile and able to more quickly adapt.
Advancements in digital banking technology have opened a world of possibilities for community banks. For decades, complicated software integrations resulting in high technology costs made digital innovation accessible only to big banks, but the development of low-code technology has lowered the barrier to entry, enabling small and midsized banks to go toe-to-toe with their larger rivals.
Community banks are vital in supporting local economies and providing financial services directly and indirectly to underserved small businesses and consumers. However, community banks’ reliance on legacy technology systems has historically limited their ability to deliver leading-edge products to their customers.
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