D3 Banking offers banks and financial institutions an in-depth look at personal financial analytics.
Omaha banking software company Lodo Software is growing in more ways than one. Over the last three few months, the company has launched a new data driven banking platform called D3 Banking—which stands for Data Driven Digital Banking—and hired 12 new employees.
The six-year-old company previously created OurCashFlow, a personal finance management software used by about 200 financial institutions.
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The company’s CEO Mark Vipond says the company ran into problems selling OurCashFlow to mid-size financial institutions—banks with $2 to $30 billion in assets—that weren’t interested in embeddable software for existing online platforms. The banks wanted a whole new product.
So in May of 2011 the Lodo team began creating a full-service online banking solution that gave consumers the bare bones information they needed and banks the data necessary to market their services. The ultimate goal was to consolidate the disparate aspects of digital banking into a single, user-friendly channel.
Unlike OurCashFlow, D3 Banking—which launched in May and debuted at Finovate in San Francisco—is a stand-alone product, an alternative to an institution’s existing digital banking services. And while Vipond says the “eye candy” of product’s design may draw customers and investors, D3 Banking’s analytics are what set the product apart.
“What we really get excited about is the data—how you use the data to change the experience for a given customer to personalize that experience,” Vipond (right) said. “That’s where we think the real power of our solution is. The staying power is in the data analytics.”
D3 Banking’s analytics framework allows financial institutions to use data to manage and target specific services to customers based on their individual needs.
“Rather than just saying, ‘You should refinance today,’ you’re able say, ‘If you refinance today, here’s the impact on your retirement goal. You could retire three years earlier because you’re going to save this much a month over a 25-year period,’” Vipond said. “It’s something that’s meaningful to you.”
The product is now available to buyers and has help Lodo bag two major clients—an undisclosed processing firm and Arvest Bank in Arkansas, which is controlled by the Walton family of Walmart fame.
In 2011, the company announced its intentions to raise $5 million in Series D funding. More recently Lodo closed a $1.1 million round of debt conversion funding in May in an “internally focused effort,” Vipond said.
In the last three months, Lodo has hired 12 new employees to work at its Omaha headquarters—bringing the number of total full-time staff to 30, including eight team members working out of offices in Denver.
Vipond says D3 Banking is trying to simplify user experience so more people will actively manage their finances. Lodo has stripped some of the more complex features of its previous products to make banking more approachable to the average Joe.
“What we’ve learned from experience is the simpler the better to attract a higher level of adoption,” he said.
Learn more about how D3 Banking works:
Credits: Product photo and video from D3 Banking.com. Mark Vipond photo from SPN archives.
