A glimpse at Savana’s service management dashboard. Image Credits: Savana

More specifically, Savana attempts to decouple third-party components of banking systems and abstract them into APIs that encapsulate not only the components, but also the rules, workflows, automations and integrations required to perform business tasks. The APIs serve as a library of customer and account servicing functions that are reusable and complementary to Savana’s enterprise content management system, a repository of a bank’s content related to customers and accounts. Beyond this, Savana offers a low-code UI framework to build internal and customer-facing apps that interface with the aforementioned APIs.

“Through pre-configured processes and integrations, [bankers using Savana] gain a real-time, holistic view of all customer accounts, cards, communications, and more, while customers benefit from better, more personalized service,” Sanchez continued. “It eliminates process silos by automating processes between systems and people and eliminates the need for multiple, siloed vendors. [The] turnkey, end-to-end platform is pre-configured with hundreds of APIs enabled.”

Of course, Savana doesn’t stand alone in the market for banking modernization tools.

Malvern, Pennsylvania–based Savana, a company building financial software products for legacy banks, today announced that it raised $45 million. A portion of the capital — $10 million — was debt, while the rest was a Series A equity tranche led by Georgian Capital Partners.

CEO Michael Sanchez told TechCrunch that the proceeds will be put toward general growth and supporting Savana’s go-to-market and product development projects.

Savana was founded in 2009 by Sanchez, who previously served as the president of the international division of FIS. Prior to FIS, he launched Sanchez Computer Associates, a supplier of core banking systems.

The problem Savana solves pertains to architecture, Sanchez tells TechCrunch. Despite banks’ digital transformation efforts, many haven’t made the switch successfully, he ardently claims.

To his point, a 2022 survey found that — among banks and credit unions who believe they’re at least three-quarters through a transition to digital — less than 25% have seen a meaningful increase in revenue. Moreover, only 11% of finance executives say their organization has modernized systems to the point where they can easily incorporate new digital technologies, according to Deloitte.

“Today’s consumers prefer digital-only banking. This change in consumer behavior has been underway for a number of years and accelerated by COVID-19 shutdowns, which led consumers to complete everyday tasks, such as shopping for groceries, depositing their checks, or managing their bills, all online,” Sanchez said in an email interview. “Despite appearances that banks have all made the transformation to digital, the majority of banks are not ready for this major change in consumer behavior … This is a major problem for banks trying to stay competitive in an environment with tons of fintech pressure.”

Savana purports to solve this problem through a combination of templates, APIs and integrations engineered to automate back-office and core banking processes. The company’s platform provides a “process architecture” for service spanning various banking and customer channels, ostensibly speeding the time to market for products and ensuring service requests get addressed quickly.

More specifically, Savana attempts to decouple third-party components of banking systems and abstract them into APIs that encapsulate not only the components, but also the rules, workflows, automations and integrations required to perform business tasks. The APIs serve as a library of customer and account servicing functions that are reusable and complementary to Savana’s enterprise content management system, a repository of a bank’s content related to customers and accounts. Beyond this, Savana offers a low-code UI framework to build internal and customer-facing apps that interface with the aforementioned APIs.

“Through pre-configured processes and integrations, [bankers using Savana] gain a real-time, holistic view of all customer accounts, cards, communications, and more, while customers benefit from better, more personalized service,” Sanchez continued. “It eliminates process silos by automating processes between systems and people and eliminates the need for multiple, siloed vendors. [The] turnkey, end-to-end platform is pre-configured with hundreds of APIs enabled.”

Of course, Savana doesn’t …read more

https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/02/2361400/