Grasshopper Raises $116M
Grasshopper Bank , the parent bank holding company of Grasshopper Bank, a newly chartered national bank, has announced the successful completion of its private placement offering and the receipt of all final regulatory approvals for the Bank to open for business.
The Company raised approximately $116.2m in its private placement offering, which followed an earlier seed round offering in which it raised $15m in connection with the organization of the Bank. At a combined capital raise of more than $131m, this is believed to be the largest capital raise for a startup bank in the United States.
Grasshopper Bank becomes the first bank chartered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the Northeast in over ten years, the ninth bank to receive a charter since the 2008 financial crisis, and the first commercial bank that plans to fully utilize digital banking in the commercial banking space.
Grasshopper Bank, which will serve New York’s innovation economy companies and its thriving venture capital community as well as companies and communities in other major innovation economy centers in the United States, opened for business on May 13, 2019 to a select group of entrepreneurs and venture investors, with a broader rollout of its services planned in the coming months. Grasshopper Bank is one of a limited number of commercial banks focused on the innovation economy as its primary market. Grasshopper brings to this market a state-of-the-art delivery platform that aims to surpass the types of delivery systems utilized by existing banks serving its target market.
“With the approval of our national charter, Grasshopper is poised to deliver banking services custom-designed for today’s entrepreneurial companies and their venture capital backers. Traditional banks, limited by antiquated and burdensome legacy systems, are less equipped to meet the needs of early stage companies. Their business models and infrastructure do not position them to provide products and services for today’s digital entrepreneur at affordable prices, or to take advantage of new technologies around data, security, and user-friendly access. In contrast, Grasshopper Bank will act as a partner with entrepreneurial companies, delivering digitally-driven, streamlined services that give management teams more efficient command of day-to-day financial operations.” – Grasshopper Bank CEO Judith Erwin.
