Fintech has always thrived on speed and innovation, but for too long the infrastructure behind it has lagged, constraining what was possible. Legacy sponsor banks often relied on brittle APIs, manual compliance, and limited transparency, forcing entrepreneurs to work around them rather than alongside them. As products grow more sophisticated and regulations more demanding, we believe bridging the gap between innovation and infrastructure has become one of the industry’s greatest opportunities.
Lead Bank is working to close that gap. From the start, the team set out to rebuild banking infrastructure from first principles: compliance-first, API-native, real-time and built for scale. The result is a fully regulated, vertically integrated bank designed to power modern financial products from the ground up.
That’s why we’re excited to announce our partnership with Lead Bank in their Series B funding round and support their mission of becoming the trusted infrastructure layer for the world’s top fintechs.
Through a single platform, Lead Bank enables companies to embed card issuance, payments, lending, deposits, and stablecoin-linked accounts. Its proprietary system connects directly to FedWire, ACH, and RTP, providing real-time reconciliation, automated controls and anomaly detection. Acting as the system of record, Lead Bank gives companies full programmatic control over compliance and settlement, translating into faster onboarding and lower costs.
Earlier this year, Visa and Stripe partnered with Lead Bank to launch a stablecoin-linked card program, and in July, Branch named Lead Bank a strategic banking partner for workplace payments. Other fintechs, including Ramp and Affirm, also rely on Lead Bank’s platform to power core products. Many of our conversations with customers highlight the same strengths: speed, reliability, and regulatory trust.
We have been fortunate to know CEO Jackie Reses for many years. She brings decades of experience at the intersection of finance, technology, and regulation. She led Square Capital, advised Yahoo during a pivotal transition, and chaired the Economic Advisory Council at the San Francisco Fed. She is joined by co-founders Ronak Vyas, Homam Maalouf, and Erica Khalili. The four co-founders worked together at Square and brought to Lead Bank a rare blend of engineering depth, product fluency, and regulatory expertise. Together, we believe they have built a leadership team that pairs real-time operational precision with a strategic perspective on what sustainable financial infrastructure requires.
This is not a new space, but many banks have stumbled on compliance or failed to support fast-moving fintechs, while middleware providers add complexity and risk. We believe Lead Bank stands out for its combination of a strong team, modern infrastructure, trusted regulatory relationships, and a roster of respected customers that validate its approach. It is also one of the few partner banks enabling businesses to offer stablecoin payments, underscoring its ability to stay ahead of the curve.
As the Banking-as-a-Service market continues to expand rapidly, we believe Lead Bank is uniquely positioned to help define what the next generation of financial infrastructure will look like. Their architecture is designed not just to scale, but to last.
We are proud to welcome Jackie, Ronak, Homam, Erica, and the entire Lead Bank team to the ICONIQ family, and we are excited to support them in their mission to help shape the future of financial infrastructure.
Published:
September 4, 2025
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