business-banking
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The Private Bank Built for Wealth That Hasn't Turned Into Cash Yet
Citizens used the regional-bank shock of 2023 to assemble a relationship bank for founders, fund partners and families with complicated balance sheets. By the end of 2025, the two-year-old unit held $14.5 billion in deposits and $10 billion in client wealth assets.
How Razorpay Turned the 'Payment Failed' Screen Into a $7.5 Billion Business
It began because two engineers couldn't collect money online for a side project. A decade later Razorpay moves an estimated $180 billion a year for millions of Indian businesses - and is walking toward the public markets.
Nine People, Eight Million Dollars, and a Bet on Small Business
Two bankers with 38 years between them walked out of a big bank in 2001, opened Venture Bank in a Bloomington office park, and spent the next 17 years signing up more than 5,000 Twin Cities companies - until Choice Financial bought the whole thing.
Flex
Flex is an AI-native private banking platform for high-net-worth, middle-market business owners. It bundles credit, business and personal banking, payments, AP automation, expense management, and ERP-style tooling into a single super app aimed at owner-operators of $3M-$100M revenue companies.
The Credit Union That Outgrew the Airline Map
UNIFY began as a savings circle for airline employees. Seventy-eight years later, its merger with CommunityAmerica shows what happens when a workplace cooperative becomes a national banking network.
The Tulsa Bank That Tried Crypto - and Came Back to the Business of Knowing You
Vast Bank became a national curiosity by putting crypto beside checking. Its more durable proposition is quieter: a Tulsa bank that mixes modern tools with bankers who still answer the phone.
Bank OZK
From two branches and $28 million in assets, Bank OZK built a $41.7 billion institution by pairing community banking with a national construction-lending machine. Now the Little Rock bank is trying to keep that edge while making its balance sheet less dependent on real estate.
CIBC
CIBC has spent 159 years changing the interface between people and money. Its newest chapter connects 15 million clients, four banking businesses and an old institutional habit: make the bank meet people where they are.
Customers Bank
Customers Bank grew from a troubled $200 million community lender into a nearly $26 billion national bank by choosing specialists over branches. Now it is testing whether real-time payments and AI can make relationship banking move at software speed.
Avenue Bank
Avenue Bank is Australia's first and only bank built exclusively around bank guarantees. Founded by the team behind credit bureau CreditorWatch and licensed by APRA as an authorised deposit-taking institution, the Sydney-based digital bank turns a paper-heavy process that once took four to six weeks into an online application of a few minutes with issuance inside 24 hours. It serves businesses that need to secure commercial leases, construction contracts and performance obligations, backing every guarantee 100% with cash while paying interest on the deposit.
Lili
Lili is a New York-based financial technology company that runs an all-in-one business banking platform for small businesses. It bundles a fee-free business checking account with built-in accounting, expense management, invoicing, automated tax savings and high-yield savings - collapsing tools that owners would otherwise stitch together. Founded in 2018 by Lilac Bar David and Liran Zelkha, Lili started serving freelancers and solopreneurs and has since repositioned toward growing, multi-employee small businesses. Banking services are provided through partner bank Sunrise Banks, N.A., Member FDIC.
Karat Financial
Karat Financial is a Los Angeles-based fintech building banking, credit cards, and financial tools for the creator economy. Founded in 2019 by Eric Wei and Will Kim, Karat underwrites digital creators and influencers using their social metrics and online business performance rather than traditional credit signals, giving YouTubers, streamers, and other entrepreneurs access to credit, banking, payments, and AI-powered bookkeeping that legacy banks routinely deny them.
Rho
Rho is a New York-based financial technology company that bundles business banking, corporate cards, treasury, accounts payable automation, and expense management into a single fee-free platform. Built for startups, mid-market companies, and accounting firms, Rho positions itself as a 'financial operating system' that replaces the patchwork of legacy banks and disconnected finance tools that growing companies usually stitch together.
Found
Found is a San Francisco-based financial technology company that bundles business banking, automated bookkeeping, and tax tools into a single platform for self-employed Americans. Founded in 2019 by ex-Square executives Lauren Myrick and Connor Dunn, Found pairs an FDIC-insured business checking account (via Lead Bank) with real-time tax estimates, automatic expense categorization, invoicing, and quarterly tax payments - aimed at the 64 million Americans who work for themselves.
Mercury
Mercury is a San Francisco fintech that builds banking and financial software for startups and growth-stage companies. Through partner banks, it offers FDIC-insured checking and savings, corporate cards, treasury, venture debt, bill pay, and an API - aimed at founders who would rather not call a branch manager.