Company: Griffin
Founders: David Jarvis & Allen Rohner
Website: https://www.griffin.sh
Description: Griffin is building a full-stack vertically integrated BaaS platform, powered by modern user-friendly technology. The company has raised $27 million of funding to date and recently submitted its application to the PRA and the FCA to become an authorised bank. Notion and other investors recognise this as a key market differentiator for the company. Becoming a bank would enable Griffin to offer banking services and a more comprehensive BaaS platform than middleware competitors. Griffin’s vision is to be a stable, long-term banking partner for innovative fintechs who often struggle with long, expensive onboarding processes and integration with legacy tech at established banks.
About Griffin
Griffin is making a bank for fintechs that they can build on. The company is developing an API-first, full-stack Banking as a Service platform that lets companies focus on building products for their customers, not managing back-end infrastructure and compliance operations. Griffin was founded by Silicon Valley engineers David Jarvis and Allen Rohner (who co-founded tech unicorn CircleCI) and a team of banking and technology executives. Griffin is building a full-stack vertically integrated BaaS platform, powered by modern user-friendly technology. The company has raised $27 million of funding to date and recently submitted its application to the PRA and the FCA to become an authorised bank. Notion and other investors recognise this as a key market differentiator for the company. Becoming a bank would enable Griffin to offer banking services and a more comprehensive BaaS platform than middleware competitors. Griffin’s vision is to be a stable, long-term banking partner for innovative fintechs who often struggle with long, expensive onboarding processes and integration with legacy tech at established banks.
“SaaS is finally eating the financial services sector the way it has every other industry, and Griffin will empower fintechs to build and launch financial products with a single secure and modern SaaS platform,” Stephen Chandler, Managing Partner at Notion Capital said. “I’m thrilled to support the team as they rewrite the way companies interact with banks and accelerate growth.”
In addition to clear market demand for a full-stack BaaS provider, Notion and other investors also backed Griffin based on the calibre of its leadership. David Jarvis and Allen Rohner, founder and former CTO of tech unicorn CircleCI, founded the company in 2017 and have since assembled a formidable team of tech and banking leaders from the Bank of England – PRA, Visa, HSBC, Form3, SWIFT, Monzo, GoCardless, Atlassian, Snyk, and more.
Since its last funding announcement in November 2020, Griffin has tripled in size and begun commercialising its platform, currently available for exclusive early access. This new round of investment will be used to grow the leadership and operational teams and continue the build of the core banking platform. Griffin is also committed to protecting its company culture as it scales. The company’s culture is based on trust, kindness and transparency and underpins its goal of becoming the bank for builders and innovators.
The financial services industry has not kept pace with consumer trends and tech innovation, creating demand for a developer-friendly bank built on modern APIs and intuitive software. Griffin aims to challenge the status quo by offering a full-stack banking platform that will make it fast, simple, and cost-effective for brands to launch financial products. This influx of capital will drive the next phase of the company’s ambitious journey.
