Apiture provides financial institutions with a platform to support the many services they offer their customers.
These services include web and mobile user interfaces for consumer and business customers, account opening software that expedites the process and data intelligence that integrates previously siloed information.
The Wilmington-based company formed as a joint venture between Live Oak Bank and Atlanta-based First Data Corp. First Data later merged with Fiserv.
Data intelligence is a relatively new offering, said Apiture CEO Chris Babcock, explaining that, with data gathered from its clients, the Apiture analyst team can advise clients how to use that information optimally to improve marketing and avoid fraud.
“The pace of innovation in financial technology is fast,” Babcock said. “Financial institutions choose to go with us because we are agile and can provide them with services quickly. The folks we look to attract and hire are allied with that culture so we can serve clients.
“We have connections with over 200 fintech partners,” he continued. “We recently rolled out an integration with Glia Technologies, which provides chat capabilities with mobile devices and online. It’s an example of what we are able to do based on what our customers are asking for. When we build a particular integration for one client, we have the ability to roll it out and sell it to other clients as well.”
Most of Apiture’s clients are financial institutions with assets under $10 billion: community banks and credit unions that choose to outsource their digital banking development and deployment rather than maintain an in-house team. Customers of those institutions see their own bank’s brand on Apiture’s digital products and services.
Babcock said it’s important, as a company that prides itself on innovation, to ensure that Apiture’s employees work as a team and share information.
“On a monthly basis, we try to over-communicate, from the leadership down,” Babcock said. “We make sure we’re all aligned on our goals and objectives. At our monthly meetings, we recognize our ‘Api-Stars’: people who have done exceptional things above and beyond their job descriptions to pursue company goals. Because we have a hybrid work environment, it’s even more important to make sure we stay connected.”
With its foundational work complete, Apiture was ready in early 2022 to concentrate on sales.
The company has beefed-up its sales team, fortified by high marks in December from ratings company Javelin. Javelin’s 2021 Digital Banking Platform Vendor Scorecard ranked Apiture second on its “Best in Class” list.
“We’re thrilled that Javelin rated us highly,” Babcock said when the award was announced in December. “We have a great solution; now it’s time to get the word out, and we’re prepared to spend three times what we have been on sales and marketing.”
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