Founders: Jacqueline Reses (CEO), Erica Khalili, Homam Maalouf, Ronak Vyas
Launched: 2022
Headquarters: Kansas City, Missouri
Funding: $110 million
Valuation: $1.5 billion
Key Technologies: N/A
Industry: Fintech
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 list: 2 (No. 15 in 2025)
The banking-as-a-service (BaaS) concept is a part of the fintech disruption of tradition financial services that Lead Bank has played a major role in creating. It has built a sizable business serving fintechs, including crypto companies, as well as among consumer companies that want to offer bank-like transactional capabilities within their ecosystems but lack the banking industry regulatory approvals.
As an underlying financial infrastructure partner, Lead Bank prides itself on being one of the few tech-enabled, FDIC-insured banks in the U.S. that can deliver a wide range of banking needs directly through its own APIs.
"One of the problems I've seen is that fintechs, over the last 10 to 15 years, have put a beautiful sheen on the front end of an app to make financial services easier. And I think we've all felt that with fintech apps that we use; the infrastructure, however, is terrible," Jacqueline Reses, Lead Bank CEO, said in an interview with CNBC last year.
One of its biggest moves in the crypto space came in April 2025, when Lead partnered with Stripe and Visa to help power their stablecoin-linked payment card platform. In July 2025, workplace payments platform Branch, whose customers include Uber and Instacart, added Lead as a strategic banking partner for products including a digital banking account and debit card.
Fellow 2026 Disruptor Revolut, which has grown to be one of the most highly valued privately held fintech companies in the world, has been a customer for the U.S. market — though Revolut is now seeking its own banking charter in the U.S., which could alter that relationship.
The company continues to attract new money from investors, announcing a $70 million Series B fundraising last September, which included new investors ICONIQ and Greycroft, as well as existing investors Ribbit Capital, Coatue, Khosla Ventures, Andreesen Horowitz, and Zeev Ventures.
Reses led a $56 million acquisition of Lead Bank in 2022. After its September 2025 fundraising, the company was valued at close to $1.5 billion.
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