Darragh Buckley, an early employee at payment processor Stripe, has taken his financial-product startup Increase further into banking after fully taking over Twin City Bank in Washington and renaming it Increase Bank.
After buying voting shares in Twin City Bank last year, Buckley has now completed a full takeover of the lender, reported Bloomberg.
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He is using the bank to broaden Increase’s work with financial-technology customers.
The transaction moves Increase into a contested market.
Buckley said the bank will retain its branch in Longview, Washington, and continue its community banking activities.
Set up in 2020, Increase first gained traction by providing the technology connection between banks and fintech groups such as Stripe and Ramp.
Its services included tools to make sure employees are paid at a precise time.
Buckley said he wanted the company to go further without depending on partner banks to manage the regulated elements of that work.
“It’s time for us to tie those things more tightly together,” he said.
Buckley has said he has long been aware of the banking difficulties facing fintech companies, given the complex arrangements required to build products.
Increase Bank, whose chief executive officer is Jon Jones, is intended to offer a more digitally native banking infrastructure for clients.
“I built it to be the banking technology that I wanted while building Stripe,” Buckley said in an interview.
In a LinkedIn post, Buckley said: “For years, I needed a bank with good product sense. One that grasped the possibilities of software and couldn’t stand to see them stifled.
“Increase Bank is the bank I needed at Stripe. It’s even more necessary today.”
