15. Lead Bank
Founders: Jacqueline Reses (CEO), Erica Khalili, Homam Maalouf, Ronak VyasLaunched: 2021Headquarters: Kansas City, MissouriFunding: $110 millionValuation: N/AKey Technologies: N/AIndustry: FintechPrevious appearances on Disruptor 50 list: 1 (No. 34 in 2024)
As more non-bank companies offer financial services — think buy now, pay later options at checkout or embedded travel insurance — the lines between traditional banks and tech firms are blurring. Few banks encapsulate that shift better than Lead Bank.
The Kansas City-based bank, acquired in 2021 by Jackie Reses and a group of investors, has become a key infrastructure provider for fintech and consumer companies looking to embed banking features into their products. Today, it's one of the few FDIC-insured banks offering both consumer banking and a full-stack banking-as-a-service platform. The company serves consumer ecommerce fintechs including Affirm, fellow Disruptor Ramp, Flex, and crypto companies, enabling them to offer everything from branded cards to bank accounts.
The bank's transformation reflects Reses's experience building financial products from scratch. As the former head of Square Capital, she helped develop the company's banking arm "from the ground up, first line of code, first policy" she told CNBC in an interview for the CNBC Changemakers Spotlight series. (Reses was named to the CNBC Changemakers list in 2024.)
Her Square experience revealed a gap between sleek fintech front ends and the patchwork infrastructure underneath.
"One of the problems I've seen is that fintechs, over the last 10 to 15 years, have put a beautiful sheen on the front end of an app to make financial services easier. And I think we've all felt that with fintech apps that we use; the infrastructure, however, is terrible," she told CNBC.
That insight has shaped Lead Bank's approach: delivering modern, regulated banking infrastructure that can scale. Lead is a fully integrated tech platform with direct regulatory oversight, housed inside a chartered, federally insured bank.
In the past year, the company has leaned more deeply into crypto. Whereas banks previously hesitated to delve into digital assets, the pendulum is swinging toward embrace amid the changed regulatory environment. Lead Bank now offers payments, custody, and settlement services to crypto companies, positioning itself as one of the first chartered banks willing and able to navigate this space.
That pivot coincides with a broader expansion. In 2024, Lead opened a New York office and broadened its product set to include card issuing, multi-currency deposit accounts, and a wider array of payment options, such as international ACH and wire transfers. It's also added new tools in risk, compliance, and disbursement.
Lead Bank has raised $110 million to date from investors including Ribbit Capital, Khosla Ventures, Coatue Management, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and now counts approximately $1.1 billion in assets. Its competitors include the likes of Cross River Bank, Celtic Bank and WebBank.
As embedded finance continues to blur the line between banks and tech firms, Lead is betting that regulated, tech-enabled infrastructure will be a long-term differentiator. And by leaning into crypto ahead of many other banks, Lead is signaling where financial services may be headed next.
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