Braid
“Can community banks reclaim the fintech-sponsorship market by owning the tech stack directly, cutting out BaaS middleware?”
Founded2022
HQSanta Clara, California, United States
FoundersRandy San Nicolas
Latest roundEarly Stage VC
IndustryInfrastructure / BaaS
The story
Braid (Braid Technologies, Inc., Santa Clara, founded 2022 by Randy San Nicolas) is an infrastructure layer that sits alongside community banks' legacy cores to let them sponsor and run fintech programs in-house — deposit accounts, wallets, payments rails, card issuance, KYC/KYB — without middleware or a BaaS intermediary. The strategic bet is that community FIs, not BaaS-fronted programs, can be the direct issuer of record if given modern ledgering. Not to be confused with the consumer shared-wallet startup Braid (Peyton/Berman, San Francisco) that shut down in 2023.
Product timeline
2022
Braid Technologies founded to modernize community-bank core infrastructure for fintech programs· pivot
2026
Partnership with Lithic to bring card issuing infrastructure to community banks and credit unions· card
2026
Partnership with Acceleron to bring international payment automation to community financial institutions· banking
The stack
5 layers disclosed in Braid’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Braid Payment Core (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Card issuing
in the full report
Ledger
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
4 more providers across 4 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.