Cross River Bank in Fort Lee, New Jersey, which acts as the regulated financial institution behind many fintechs, has been informally investing in startups for the last 12 to 18 months. Now it is making its support more official with a new venture capital arm, the company announced this week.
Cross River Digital Ventures will provide funding and expertise to early-stage companies that focus on lending, payments, investing and fintech to help them grow quickly and build new products. It will invest in startups that the $13.5 billion-asset Cross River Bank wants to work with or ones that it feels will benefit the broader industry.
“As we start to come out of COVID, we recognize that technology was able to serve consumers and small business in ways that traditional banking products couldn’t,” Phil Goldfeder, senior vice president of global public affairs at the bank, said in an interview. “We felt it was the perfect time to explore investing in startups that are changing the future of financial services in a more strategic, thoughtful and comprehensive way.”
Goldfeder said Cross River’s decadelong experience as a fintech company gives the venture capital division a unique perspective on financial innovation.
Three companies it has invested in so far are Innovative Assessments, which uses psychometrics to personalize financial services and promote financial inclusion; Lev, a technology-focused commercial real estate financing advisory firm; and Finix Payments, a payments infrastructure provider.
Cross River understands fintech "like few other companies, and their reputation and access to resources is tremendous,” Yaakov Zar, founder of Lev, said in a press release Tuesday that announced the formation of the digital ventures unit.
