Digital Banking Company Mantl Raises $40m

Digital banking technology company Mantl announced today that they have raised $40m in series B funding.  Mantl, which offers software for smaller community banks and credit unions to create their own online platforms, has raised a total of $60.7m to date. This round of funding was led by CapitalG, the independent growth fund of Alphabet (Google's parent company). Previous fintech investments made by CapitalG include Stripe, Robin Hood, and Credit Karma. Aside from CapitalG, other backers of this series B funding included D1 Capital Partners, BoxGroup, as well as existing backers Point72 Ventures, Clocktower Technology Ventures and OldSlip Grou.

Disrupting Traditional Banking

Founded in 2016, Mantl was created to provide a simple and easy-to-use platform to integrate core banking systems and enable customers to access a wide range of options through mobile tools. With community banks and credit unions accounting for 95 percent of banks in America, Mantl's vision was to create a tool to help these smaller institutions compete with big banks. Mantl recognized the fact that many traditional banks have the resources to create user friendly digital platforms but often refuse to modernize due to their risk-averse nature. With this in mind, the company developed a suite of tools to help smaller institutions take advantage of this need. 

The Mantl platform adds value to smaller financial institutions by being easy to use. With little background knowledge needed, small financial institutions can use Mantl to customize the look, feel, and messaging on their online platform using a no-code editor. Similar to the way Shopify enables small business owners to easily open a fully customized online storefront with little experience required, Mantl performs a similar function for small banks.

Growth in Online Account Openings  

While Mantl originally intended to create their own financial institution to challenge traditional banks, they quickly found that there was a much bigger need to be filled. With many traditional banks running on software language that is over 60 years old, Mantl aimed to develop newer software to address modern-day needs. They found that the main areas where smaller banks could compete with larger institutions were in online account openings. Mantl states that using their platform, a financial institution can offer tools to customers that allow them “to open an account from anywhere at any time, on any device in less than three minutes.” Their flagship account opening software has been built to meet a very real need in the industry. The company estimates that four years ago, less than 20 percent of all banks in the United States offered online account opening. Today, that number remains at under 50 percent. 

The capital raised will be used to develop new products and to hire additional staff. One of the main areas of focus will be extending the existing account opening platform to meet the needs of small business account holders. The company is hoping to adapt their account opening software to allow for small business account set up later this year. With many community banks having developed relationships with small businesses during COVID-19 through the Paycheck Protection Program and other government programs, Mantl has seen demand from institutions for products that will allow them to transform shorter-term relationships into long-term ones.