The 5-year-old company, which recently raised $131 million, says its strong growth reflects the timeliness of its mission: helping consumers who live paycheck to paycheck build wealth.

CEO Wendy Cai-Lee says Piermont Bank can do it all for financial technology firms: be their commercial banker, be their banking-as-a-service provider and develop APIs and other cutting-edge products for them.

The megabank and community bank recently announced they're offering accounts through the payment app. Both gave similar reasons: They need big tech to help them attract new customers.

The company's new relationship with Billshark highlights its quest for partners that can deliver financial management products to complement its banking services.

American Challenger Bank would offer consumer and commercial products using technology from Temenos. Organizers recently applied with the FDIC for deposit insurance.

Community development financial institutions, which tend to be less digitally savvy than traditional banks and credit unions, are developing online-lending platforms and automating backroom processes with investments and technical assistance from big banks, high-tech firms and other sources.

The startup, created in partnership with conversational AI platform LivePerson, will encourage users to send sums of money to strangers.

The two companies have worked together to provide a banking app that community banks can implement and deploy in 30 days.

A recent survey by the American Bankers Association found that mobile apps surpassed online banking as the go-to platform for consumers earlier this year, and its popularity has continued to rise since the onset of the pandemic.

The challenger bank will start by recommending how much users should allocate toward savings and spending, and will later transfer those amounts automatically.