Banc of California Considers Backing Finexio

After participating in FinTech Finexio’s recent $8 million funding round, Banc of California is mulling the possibility of investing in the startup once again.

“We’re the only bank that’s invested in them. So, I think there’s the opportunity for us to play an important role with them,” Jared Wolff, president and CEO of Banc of California, told LA Buisness Journal.

Wolff added that a bigger investment could be warranted for Finexio, a startup that strives to make bill paying easier. Finexio recently moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Orlando, Florida.

See also: Finexio Raises $8M To Build Out AP Software Suite

Finexio, a FinTech firm that provides a business-to-business (B2B) commercial payment network, is a subsidiary of OneNetworks.

Banc of California invested roughly $1 million in Finexio’s August growth round and plans to use Finexio’s payment services to extend more products to business clients. Banc of California also is looking to develop expanded services for payments, loans and deposits.

“They provide what I would call payment optimization services to small and medium-sized businesses,” Wolff said. “The product helps users to efficiently manage their accounts payable functions, and what they do is interface with customers’ existing accounting software.”

Read more: Payables Departments Confront Need To Consumerize Business Payments

Founded in 2017, Finexio has raised $40 million in debt financing and venture capital to build out its platform, which uses algorithms to tap machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to uncover trends in bill paying.

Banc of California sees Finexio’s ML and AI software as a technology driven by algorithms that can spot bill-paying trends — pay by wire, automated clearinghouse, bill pay or by check, per the report.

“We believe the services they provide are attractive to our clients,” said Wolff, who hopes to roll out Finexio’s payments platform to Banc of California’s customers by the second quarter of 2022.