Ascent Platform Corporation, the leader in financial portability solutions for banks and credit unions, announced today that it has successfully raised $5.3 million in venture funding. The round was led by Foundation Capital, TruStage Ventures Discovery Fund, Alloy Labs, Reseda Group, and other investors.
As open banking takes hold in the US, community banks and credit unions will need new tools to compete and win. Ascent is the first platform that enables financial institutions and their customers to securely and bidirectionally share internal and external financial information, on a permissioned basis. The platform positions banks and credit unions to act as trusted partners in helping consumers and small businesses navigate the financial marketplace by giving them control over when and how they share information.
Financial institutions sit on troves of data on their customers, but this data is largely unstructured, siloed, and inoperable. Ascent merges external 3rd party data with an institution’s data to provide a holistic view of the customer, surface insights about them, and deliver higher levels of personalization and service. By orchestrating data end-end across internal and external data sources, institutions can automate queries, analyses, and models that drive underwriting workflows across originations, monitoring, portfolio management, and compliance. The end result is a 360-view of the customer across the institution. The platform enables customers to securely share information with other entities–not just financial institutions, but insurers, healthcare providers, logistics and supply chain partners, government, etc.
“Open banking will likely create dynamics similar to the Telecommunications Reform Act and HIPAA, where service and information portability increased market complexity and competition. With switching costs and barriers lowered, financial institutions will need to find new ways to create value,” said Elizabeth McCluskey, Head of Discovery Fund and Director at Trustage Ventures. “Ascent is positioned to capitalize on increased data accessibility in financial services and manage and control workflows within and across institutions”.
Ascent is extensible and augments institutions’ existing tech stack. They gain immediate benefit without incurring the cost and operational risk of incumbent system tear-out. Products and workflows can be rapidly configured and are managed by Ascent.
“Mid-size financial institutions struggle to compete with larger banks, particularly in the current environment,” said Angus Davis, General Partner at Foundation Capital. “We invested in Ascent because the company’s technology makes it easy for credit unions and regional banks to digitize lending workflows without a costly rip-and-replace of existing systems.”
Ascent has launched modules that unlock value from loan origination and servicing systems. These modules centralize loan operations and seamlessly orchestrate the flow of borrower data across systems, increasing the capacity of teams to focus on core business drivers. Deployment is white-glove with no engineering required and minimal IT involvement.
“Our investors include some of the biggest and most innovative CUSOs, tech-forward banks, and fintech-focused VCs,” said Arjun Sahgal, co-founder and CEO of Ascent. “We are grateful for their strategic guidance and support, as we grow our network of clients and partners who are equally committed to enhancing the competitiveness of community banks and credit unions.”
About Ascent
Ascent is the next-generation data platform that provides financial institutions with the tools and data sources required to service their customers. Ascent merges open banking sources with systems-of-record data to create a holistic view of customers and enables institutions to deliver better banking experiences. Ascent can be deployed and connected to existing systems and applications. Ascent currently offers add-on modules that unlock value from loan origination and servicing systems. These highly configurable modules enable institutions to launch bespoke lending products quickly, automate loan monitoring and renewals, and eliminate wasted effort on internal and external audits. For more information, please visit ascentplatform.io.
