Cross River Bank
also invests Β· investor profileUnicorn Β· $3BJersey City, US Β· Founded 2008 Β· 1,653 employees on LinkedIn Β· 12 known investors
Find your way into Cross River Bank
Cross River is a bank that combines traditional banking safety and compliance expertise with technology innovation to provide end-to-end financial solutions for partner companies.
Also known as CRB Group, Inc. Β· Cross River Β· Cross River Bank Β· Cross River Bank, Inc.
Investors Β· 12
Also in the syndicate Β· 5
Valuation Β· disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed β follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Cross River is an American financial services organization and FDIC-member bank headquartered in Fort Lee, New Jersey, that provides technology infrastructure to fintech and technology companies. Its parent entity is CRB Group, Inc. The bank combines traditional community banking activities β taking deposits and making loans β with an API-based platform through which partner companies deliver embedded payments, cards, lending and cryptocurrency products. Cross River also operates a branch in Teaneck, New Jersey, and has maintained offices in Portland, Oregon and San Francisco following its 2019 acquisition of small-business banking firm Seed.
The company's product suite spans a banking platform (card issuing, FDIC-insured accounts with subledgers, crypto, bank rails, card payments and card processing), marketplace lending covering origination, servicing, securitization and loan sale, principal financing for cash-flow-producing assets, and CRB Securities, a fintech-focused investment bank offering private placements, M&A, ABS issuance and loan sale advisory. At the core is the Cross River Operating System (COS), a proprietary real-time, API-driven banking core built in-house that handles account ledgers, compliance checks and connections to payment networks while partners manage customer-facing applications. Recent product work includes virtual cards for AI agents with BIN sponsorship, automated deposit sweeps embedded in COS for expanded FDIC coverage, and unified fiat and stablecoin flows including USDC settlement on Ethereum and Solana.
Cross River established a venture capital arm, Cross River Digital Ventures, in 2021 to invest in lending, payments, investing and fintech startups. During the COVID-19 pandemic it was among the largest Paycheck Protection Program lenders, originating $6.5 billion in loans to more than 198,000 small businesses.
Founding story
Cross River Bank was founded in 2008 by French-born entrepreneur Gilles Gade as a community bank. Gade remains Chairman, Founder and CEO. The bank entered its first technology partnership in 2010, beginning its shift toward serving fintech companies.
Business model
Cross River operates a B2B2C banking-as-a-service model in which fintech and technology companies are the direct customers and revenue derives from financial services consumed by those partners' end users. It functions as the regulated infrastructure layer, allowing partners to offer banking products without their own charter. Monetization is based on revenue sharing across product lines: for lending it typically uses an originate-to-distribute approach, retaining roughly 10-20% of loans on balance sheet and selling the remainder to investors or partners, generating origination fees and interest income; for card programs, interchange is split with partners, with the bank typically retaining 10-30% of interchange revenue. It has also begun deploying balance sheet capital as a forward-flow buyer of third-party-originated loans.
Revenue comes from net interest income on the loan book plus noninterest income tied to fintech partners, loan sales, servicing and other fee-generating activity. In 2025 net interest income was $432M and noninterest income $85M, with noninterest income representing 16% of revenue versus 7% in 2024. Additional income streams include origination fees, interchange share on card programs, credit facilities extended to partners, and advisory and capital markets fees through CRB Securities.
Traction
Cross River reports powering lending, payments, card and crypto solutions for over 100 technology partners, including X, Upgrade, Upstart, Trustly, Stripe, Plaid, DailyPay, Coinbase, Checkout, Bill.com, Best Egg and Affirm. Its site cites more than $32 billion in consumer loans facilitated since 2019 and 300% growth in RTP transactions. Third-party estimates put 2025 revenue at approximately $517M with $24M of net income, and Q1 2026 revenue of $143M. Total assets were reported at $9.9 billion as of November 2020 and $8.7 billion in a later directory listing.
Latest developments
In March 2026, CRB Group announced a $50 million common equity capital raise from existing investors, with accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management, to fund product launches, partnerships and international expansion across AI, crypto and embedded finance; CRB Securities acted as exclusive strategic financial advisor and Sullivan & Cromwell as legal counsel. The company has introduced virtual cards for AI agents with BIN sponsorship and automated deposit sweeps built into COS for expanded FDIC insurance coverage. It committed $250 million in a forward-flow arrangement to purchase crypto-backed loans originated by Figure Technologies, extended a $250 million revolving credit facility to Upgrade (upsized from $150 million) and a $150 million senior secured revolving credit facility to EarnIn as sole senior secured lender and administrative agent. Cross River also migrated customers to a new online banking portal.
βΈFull profile β market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Cross River is one of the larger banking-as-a-service providers serving the US fintech sector, with a proprietary real-time core, over 100 technology partners, and around $8.7-9.9 billion in total assets across reported periods. It sits at the hub of fintech lending, acting as lender of record for major consumer lending platforms and as a sponsor bank for card and payments programs. It was the third-largest originator by number of PPP loans during the pandemic.
Cross River holds its own bank charter and FDIC membership while operating an in-house real-time banking core, allowing it to combine regulated banking, compliance and risk management with API-based delivery rather than depending on third-party cores. It bundles crypto, lending, payments and cards on one platform β what management describes as embedded finance 2.0 β with a processor-agnostic card issuing model, balance sheet capacity for principal financing and forward-flow purchases, and an affiliated broker-dealer, CRB Securities, for capital markets and advisory services.
Technology
The company's foundation is a proprietary, in-house-built real-time banking core, the Cross River Operating System (COS), exposed through APIs. Partners integrate to access demand deposit and savings accounts, ACH, wire and real-time payments, push-to-card transfers, debit and credit card issuance and processing on a processor-agnostic basis, and consumer and small business lending pipelines with automated underwriting that can approve and fund loans in milliseconds. The platform provides webhook notifications and a developer sandbox, and has been extended to unify fiat and stablecoin flows, supporting USDC settlement via API on Ethereum and Solana for merchant payouts, on/off ramps, network settlement and treasury management.
Go-to-market
Cross River sells directly to technology partners through an API-first developer motion β publishing API documentation and a sandbox environment β combined with its compliance, risk management and implementation teams that help partners bring regulated products to market. Once integrated, partners expand into additional product lines on the same core. It also serves institutional credit investors through capital markets and advisory services from CRB Securities, and reaches customers of partner platforms indirectly under partner branding.
Fintech and technology companies, digital lenders, neobanks, merchant acquirers, merchant and social platforms, retailers, gaming operators, crypto-native fintechs, and institutional credit investors, as well as consumer and commercial banking customers of the bank itself.
Geography
Headquartered in Fort Lee, New Jersey, with a branch in Teaneck, New Jersey, and offices in Portland, Oregon and San Francisco established through the Seed acquisition. Its stated strategy includes expanding its international footprint and bringing products to market worldwide.
History
After launching as a community bank in 2008 and signing its first tech partnership in 2010, Cross River announced a $100 million securitization with Marlette Funding in October 2015 and completed a $28 million growth equity investment led by Battery Ventures in November 2016. KKR led a $100 million investment in 2018. In 2019 the bank received a Grow NJ grant from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority to expand operations, purchased office space in Fort Lee with a commitment to hire 250 employees, acquired Portland-based small business banking firm Seed, joined The Clearing House's real-time payments network and partnered with Stripe. In 2020 it issued $106 million of private placement subordinated bonds through its parent and became a leading PPP lender. It opened a 70,000 square-foot Fort Lee headquarters in April 2021 and launched Cross River Digital Ventures the same year. In March 2022 it raised $620 million led by Andreessen Horowitz and Eldridge. In April 2023 press reports described an FDIC cease-and-desist order. In March 2026 it announced a $50 million common equity raise from existing investors including accounts advised by T. Rowe Price.
Risks & controversies
In April 2023, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported that the FDIC had issued Cross River a cease-and-desist order over what the regulator characterized as unsafe or unsound banking practices. Third-party financial data shows periods of negative noninterest income in 2022 and 2023 from mark-to-market losses and weaker fee volumes, a reported negative net income and return on assets in one directory listing, and net income declining from $38M in 2024 to $24M in 2025. Its move into digital-asset-collateralized lending as a forward-flow buyer concentrates balance sheet risk in crypto-backed assets.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Competitors Β· 9
by search overlap
Companies competing with Cross River Bank for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Timeline Β· 15
launches, deals, and filingsCross River embedded Automated Sweeps into its banking core, providing expanded FDIC insurance coverage for larger balances through a single API integration.
CRB Group, Inc., parent of Cross River Bank, announced a $50 million common equity capital raise from existing investors, accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management, to fund product launches, partnerships and international expansion across AI, crypto and embedded finance. CRB Securities was exclusive strategic financial advisor; Sullivan and Cromwell was legal counsel.
$50M source β
Cross River acted as sole senior secured lender and administrative agent on a $150 million senior secured revolving credit facility to EarnIn.
$150M source β
Cross River committed $250 million in a forward-flow arrangement to purchase crypto-backed loans originated by Figure Technologies, its first large-scale entry into digital-asset-collateralized lending as a buyer.
$250M source β
Cross River provided Upgrade a $250 million revolving credit facility, upsized from $150 million and secured by personal credit line assets.
$250M source β
Cross River introduced virtual cards for AI agents alongside debit and credit program launches with BIN sponsorship.
The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported that the FDIC sent the bank a cease-and-desist order over what the regulator characterized as unsafe or unsound banking practices.
Cross River officially opened its new 70,000 square-foot Fort Lee headquarters, acquired with assistance from the 2019 Grow NJ grant, to accommodate a workforce that had grown to roughly 500 employees.
Cross River established a venture capital arm, Cross River Digital Ventures, to invest in startups in lending, payments, investing and fintech.
Cross River, through its parent company, issued $106 million in private placement subordinated bonds.
$106M source β
Cross River announced the acquisition of Seed, a Portland, Oregon-based small business banking firm. The deal retained Seed employees and senior leadership, with Cross River maintaining office space in Portland and San Francisco, its first West Coast presence.
Cross River received a Grow NJ grant from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority to expand operations, leading to the purchase of new office space in Fort Lee and a commitment to hire 250 new employees.
Cross River announced it was joining The Clearing House's real-time payments system and partnering with Stripe.
Cross River Bank announced a $100 million securitization with Marlette Funding.
$100M source β
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
βΈResearch sources Β· 8
primary sources listed
- Cross River Bankcrossriver.com Β· web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Cross River Bank do?
- Cross River is an FDIC-member US bank providing API-based banking, payments, card, lending and crypto infrastructure to fintechs.
- Who are Cross River Bank's investors?
- Cross River Bank's investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Cota Capital, Expansion Venture Capital, InvestX, K20 Fund, LaunchBay Capital, T. Rowe Price.
- Where is Cross River Bank headquartered?
- Cross River Bank is headquartered in Jersey City, US.