NEW YORK, NY / January 29, 2024 / Grasshopper, the client-first digital bank built for the business and innovation economy, today announced it closed 2023 with strong revenue growth and marked milestones across multiple channels, including significant growth in new client onboarding, on-going enhancements to the client experience, new products, and the continued commitment to using new and existing strategic fintech partners to foster growth, signaling a strong start to 2024.
“While 2023 was a challenging year for most of the financial services industry, Grasshopper’s commitment to being a digital bank focused on providing small business owners, venture-backed startups and the investor community access to products and services through their preferred channels proved extremely valuable,” said Mike Butler, CEO and Chairman of Grasshopper Bank. “The combination of our client-first approach, strong digital tools, and advancement of our products and strategic fintech partnership integrations meet the diverse and ever-changing needs of our market segments. We owe our growth and success to this pursuit of listening to our clients and letting that drive our innovation. We will bring this same passion forth in 2024.”
Key Growth Metrics
Grasshopper expanded significantly in 2023 across multiple lines of business, underscoring its client-driven approach to driving key service and offering developments across Small and Medium-Sized Business (SMB) Banking, Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), SBA Lending, Venture Banking and more. Below is a summary of the Bank’s growth compared to 2022:
- Loans and deposits increase
- Total loans reached $525.4 million, 16% growth year over year
- Total deposits reached $1.16 billion, 96% growth year over year
- Deposits held on the Bank’s balance sheet reached $665.7 million, a 21% increase from the prior year
- Total revenue of $25.9 million in 2023, which represents 83% growth year over year
- Grew the SMB client base and welcomed over 9,000 new Innovator Checking account clients to Grasshopper’s digital business banking platform, generating nearly $50 million in new deposits
- Deliberate approach to BaaS, powered by API middleware provided by the Bank’s technology partner Treasury Prime, allowed Grasshopper to cross $1 billion in program deposits and over $10.7 billion in transaction volume in 2023, with over 20 financial technology (fintech) programs live or in flight at year end
- Fund & Sponsor Banking team remained steadfast in its commitment to the investor community, bringing on 480 new VC/PE fund relationships throughout the year and expanded into the Sponsor Finance and lower middle market segments
- SBA Lending division produced $72.5 million in total SBA loans
- Raised $14 million in capital to support growth plans at the end of 2023
New Products & Services
Responding to the evolving needs of the innovation economy, especially given industry events last year, Grasshopper executed plans that further strengthened its commitment to the business community through various new offerings:
- Accelerator Checking – feature-packed digital operating account and partnership ecosystem designed to serve a wide range of startups, launched in the fourth quarter of 2023
- Grasshopper Connect – an exclusive, curated community of investors within the Bank’s network for startup clients seeking fundraising opportunities went live in tandem with the Accelerator Checking product
- Partners & Perks – a digital partner marketplace platform offering valuable benefits to both Startup and SMB clients; a sampling of these additional benefits:
- Ramp corporate cards
- Capchase for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies seeking non-dilutive financing solutions
- Perks including discounts on AI productivity platform Slack, startup insurance provider Vouch, and project management software Linear
- Enhanced FDIC Coverage – Grasshopper joined the IntraFi network to provide depository clients with additional FDIC coverage of over $100 million
Strategic Partnerships
Grasshopper stayed true to its commitment of partnering with leading technology companies to provide an excellent client and digital banking experience, which included these new announcements in 2023:
- A partnership with MANTL, a leading provider of account origination solutions, to create efficiencies that better serve its SMB and Startup clients. Through this partnership, Grasshopper leveraged Commercial Deposit Origination by MANTL to strengthen its digital deposit origination platform, allowing businesses the ability to open and fund a deposit account digitally in under 10 minutes. This platform is also seamlessly integrated with Narmi and Alloy, the Bank’s partners for digital banking and account decisioning and monitoring, respectively.
- Grasshopper began working with Cable to leverage its automated assurance capabilities for financial crime assurance, testing, and oversight
- Enhancements to the Bank’s commercial lending processes were driven through partnerships with nCino, leveraging their Portfolio Analytics, Commercial Banking and Customer Engagement solutions, and Numerated to leverage its AI-powered financial spreading tool for Grasshopper’s credit team to automate the process of aggregating and analyzing financial data
To learn more about Grasshopper and additional key developments, please visit the Grasshopper website here.
About Grasshopper Bank
With total assets of approximately $733 million, Grasshopper is a client-first digital bank serving the business and innovation economy. Grasshopper replaces the traditional one-size-fits-all approach to banking with a suite of products and services tailored to specific industries, and a passionate team of experts with deep expertise in their fields. Grasshopper’s banking solutions cover small business, venture-backed companies, fintech-focused Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and commercial API banking platforms, SBA lending, commercial real estate lending, and yacht financing. Headquartered in New York City, the bank is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and is an Equal Housing/Equal Opportunity Lender. For more information, visit the bank’s website at www.grasshopper.bank or follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.
