US Bank Now Limited Partner in 2 FinTech VCs

Five years ago, U.S. Bank created a dedicated FinTech unit designed to find emerging companies that can help the bank improve its customers’ digital and mobile experiences.

On Thursday (Aug. 26), U.S. Bank said it was taking things a few steps further, becoming a limited partner in two venture capital firms — Fin Venture Capital and Commerce Ventures — specializing in the FinTech space.

“We’re active in all areas within FinTech,” David Ness, who leads the FinTech engagement group at U.S. Bank, said on the company blog. “Through development, investments, partnerships and more — relationships like these are vital as we grow relationships and make strategic decisions.”

The bank says that while it will often find solutions to business needs in-house, there are times where it’s simpler and more cost-effective to use specific components from a FinTech instead of trying to develop something from scratch. It was that thinking that helped drive the bank’s recent acquisition of Bento Technologies.

Read more: US Bank to Buy Debit Card-Based Biz Expense Management Platform Bento Technologies

Also known as Bento for Business, the Chicago- and San Francisco-based firm provides small- and medium-sized businesses with debit card-based payment and expense management tools. Bento customers transfer funds from their bank into a Bento account, with money accessible via a Visa debit card.

Financial details regarding the acquisition — expected to close next month — were not provided.

In the past, Ness’s team has built partnerships with FinTechs in several emerging areas, including cryptocurrency, distributed ledger technology, tokenization of assets, digitization of credit applications and fraud detection.

While U.S. Bank can benefit from the FinTechs’ technical expertise, the firms get a partner that can help them build their companies. In the past year, Ness has had more conversations regarding partnerships with FinTechs than ever before.

“We leverage an extensive network of partners to source options, based on a series of relationships we’ve built over the years,” he said. “These two investments enhance that even further.”