Bud Financial has received an investment from BankTech Ventures to accelerate its growth with US banks and credit unions.
The size of the investment was not disclosed. Bud provides a customer intelligence layer that ingests a bank’s customer data, enriches it, and organises it into a unified ontology, a shared view of each customer across the bank. On that basis, Bud identifies which customers suit which products and engages them through digital banking, contact centres, relationship managers, and branches.
Data foundation for AI in banking
According to Bud, banks need to modernise how they use data to keep pace with neobanks and deploy AI, but traditional replatforming is slow, expensive, and risky. Its layer sits between a bank’s systems of record and its digital products, channels, and AI agents, providing enriched and explainable customer data that models, agents, and workflows can use without replacing core systems.
Edward Maslaveckas, CEO and Co-Founder of Bud, stated that banks do not need to replace their core systems to compete with AI, but need a layer that turns existing data into intelligence and action across channels. According to Maslaveckas, CRM systems have not delivered personalised banking relationships across channels, and Bud addresses this by applying its customer models across core, CRM, and CRA data.
Expanding with US banks
Bud plans to use the funding to expand its go-to-market efforts in the US, develop its data ontology and AI capabilities, and accelerate work on its Revenue Agents, which identify revenue opportunities and act on them under each bank’s control. Founded in 2015, Bud has processed tens of billions of transactions and has worked with more than 400 financial institutions.
Carey Ransom, Managing Director at BankTech Ventures, stated that banks are being rebuilt to offer the personalisation and relevance modern customers expect, which requires an organised intelligence layer that understands every customer and transaction. BankTech Ventures is backed by more than 125 community and regional banks, as well as the American Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America, and manages more than USD 150 million.
