Agora Services lands $2m in seed funding
Agora Services, the Georgia-based start-up branding itself “the fintech enabler for banks”, has landed $2 million in funding.
The round was “driven mostly from its founders”, the start-up says. The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) was an early investor in the firm through its ThinkTech programme, and Agora is also a graduate from MasterCard’s ‘Start Path FinTech’ programme.
“Banks have to move beyond a website, a standard app or mobile check deposit,” says Agora
Alongside the capital injection, the start-up has also launched its new company headquarters in Atlanta, a city in Georgia which the company calls “a growing fintech payment hub”.
Agora provides financial institutions flexibility with “added” cloud-based digital banking platforms “without the need for core conversion or overhauling their current technology systems,” it says in its statement.
The start-up wants to address credit unions’ and community banks’ concerns over customer acquisition and deposit growth in the new digital age.
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“Banks have to move beyond a website, a standard app or mobile check deposit,” says Agora’s founder and CEO Arcady Lapiro.
“They must compete with the latest fintech technology, including fully integrated digital onboarding, instant account opening, instant virtual card, advanced card controls, shared accounts, budgeting, money pool and more,” he adds.
Lapiro was previously one of the builders of Fortuneo, the French digital bank founded in 2000 which became profitable in 2004. Fortuneo now claims to have more than 800,000 active customers across France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg.
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