The Life of A Startup (Money 2020 Version)

TLDR

• Money 2020: We’re there, come find us!
• Doubling: gross profit, accounts, deposits, and GMV (YoY)
• New banks: TransPecos Banks and Lincoln Savings
• Banks re-upping: Coastal Community Bank
• Stablecoin: evolutionary, not revolutionary

Pretty sure that this is Money 2020 number 13 or so for me, and it’s become an annual pilgrimage to Vegas to meet with the best and brightest in FinTech.  

First things first - we’d love to hang out and learn what you are building - come say hi. On day two (Monday), we’re co-hosting a super fun event with Finix and LoanPro at Electra at 9pm. Then for a little advice on compliance, spend some time at office hours with Deb Bonosconi, our Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, and our fraud and AML friends from Hawk. 

Lots of great updates for our team below, but perhaps the most amazing and unexpected fun was seeing us getting a shout out on the Today Show this week. 

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General update and our macro metrics

This has been our doubling year and pleased to report that we’re growing quite nicely: 

• Net Revenue (closer to 3x)
• Gross profit
• Accounts
• Deposits
• and…GMV appears to be on the same trajectory

Next stop, break-even and at least doubling again next year. (Want the actual numbers? Become a customer of ours, an investor, or join our collection of Partner Banks and be part of the growth.)

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New things we’ve been building lately

We’re pushing new updates and features regularly. Here are some highlights:

• In September, we announced our new credit card offering in partnership with LoanPro and we’ve seen a ton of interest
• We did a bunch of work around transactions, digital wallet tokens, and dashboard updates on our Insights platform in September.

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Banks + Customers

When we started Synctera, we knew that everything depended on our partner banks and their goals of growing safely and soundly. The last few years have been decidedly challenging for FinTechs and banks – no thanks to Synapse – and we’ve been fortunate to have had strong relationships carry us through.  

I’m pleased to report we’re onboarding two new banks to our platform this quarter – TransPecos Banks and Lincoln Savings – and expanding our relationship with Coastal Community Bank.

First up, someone who isn’t new to the sponsor banking world, TransPecos Banks. In chatting with their team, it was clear that working with FinTechs was a strategic early-adopter move for them. For the right reasons, too, all in the spirit of innovation and positioning themselves for long-term growth. 

Why look to us? Here’s what their President, Doug Hogan, offered up:

“Synctera impressed us with their deep understanding of the sponsor banking ecosystem and their commitment to compliance, scalability, and speed to market. Their platform offered the flexibility and support we needed to confidently engage with fintech partners while maintaining our regulatory standards. The collaborative approach and shared vision for innovation made Synctera a natural fit.”

Next, Lincoln Savings Bank, also no stranger to our world, has joined our community of banks. I first met their CEO, Sean Willett in Washington late last year as we worked with folks in Congress looking for more support for our industry. We both agree that compliance and regulation are definitely not the enemy of embedded finance, they represent an opportunity to build safely and protect consumers’ money. 

“We leverage our decade plus of embedded finance experience to seek partnerships that can scale in a sustainable manner. Synctera ticks the boxes, providing outstanding technology, compelling commercial opportunities, and effective operational processes that support prudent risk management. We are excited for the future growth potential of this valued partnership.” Reid Whiting, President LSBX

We truly appreciate the vote of confidence and I’m glad that we now get to work together. 

Coastal, a powerhouse who’s been making moves, originally came to us to assist in bolstering their already existing operations. I’ll let their CEO, Eric Sprink, provide you with some color:

“As Synctera’s first bank partner and an early investor, Coastal has been collaborating with their team for five years to deliver scalable, compliant infrastructure for fintech innovation. Together, we built a powerful reconciliation engine that bridges Coastal to our partner platforms, saving time and money across some of the largest programs in the industry.”

Now, I’m pleased to share that for the first time, we’ll now be onboarding new companies together. A bit more from Eric on that:

“We’re now growing our relationship with Synctera to power the next generation of embedded-finance and AI-driven fintechs. Synctera’s platform continues to help Coastal support our partners’ growth, including new use cases in Stablecoin-enabled payments.” 

We’re seeing boldness and growth across our fintech customers, too. One highlight is Bolt’s successful superapp launch. We announced our partnership with them back in March, it’s been fantastic to see all three teams come together to bring Bolt’s customers onboard. I’ve been bullish on superapps for quite some time, and this one’s especially fun to watch.

And if there was ever a textbook use case for embedded finance, it’s Zenoti. They built a platform to help salons and spas manage both their employees and customers, and they’ve driven the fastest adoption on our platform to-date. 

Lots of fun launches ahead for us this year and in 2026 and a stronger pipeline than ever to go along with it.

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What’s next - Stablecoins?

I get asked about stablecoins a lot. I see them as an evolution in money movement, not a revolution, boosting efficiency and speed only if liquidity, regulation, and trust keep pace.

Luckily, banks are moving thoughtfully, balancing innovation with the risk management and partnership strategies that matter most to their customers. The most likely outcome? Stablecoins become a solid currency option within existing platforms, a useful tool for immediate settlement rather than a wholesale replacement of money as we know it.

We're actively exploring stablecoins and their role in our ecosystem and if that’s your cup of tea, come join us. (We will not be making it easier for money launderers in Venezuela, and will have all the usual CIP/AML locked in - thanks for the tip Jason.)

Thanks for reading this far, we’re super busy here at Synctera. We’re growing well, and enjoying our new relationships with customers and banks alike. 

Long live banks, especially ones that are up for a challenge. 

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Cya in the casinos.

Tx

P

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