Maximum, an AI-native operating system builder for banks, has come out of stealth after securing a $30m Seed round, ranking among the biggest Seed raises the FinTech industry has seen.
CRV led the investment, joined by Pear VC, Restive, Plug and Play Ventures, Anthemis and other backers. The company was established by Randy Fernando, a serial FinTech founder whose previous ventures include Vault, acquired by Acorns in 2017, and Power, purchased by Marqeta in 2023.
The startup is targeting the ageing, disjointed technology stacks that underpin much of the banking sector. Among the almost 5,000 banks operating in the US, over 70% still run on core platforms engineered in the last century, well before the arrival of mobile banking, real-time payments, digital currencies or AI.
This dependence on dated systems leaves institutions struggling to innovate quickly, cheaply or without operational strain, even as customer demands shift.
Maximum's answer is a real-time platform with AI embedded at its foundation. Banks using the system can build and deploy their own agents to automate intricate operational workflows, monitor customer activity as it happens, and launch new financial products aimed at driving growth.
Security has also been a priority, with the company developing enhanced protocols and controls to help institutions defend themselves and their customers against increasingly capable and persistent threats emerging in the AI era.
The company's staff includes operators from Fernando's earlier businesses, bringing experience across banking, payments and financial infrastructure, while several of its investors have backed his previous ventures.
Larger community and regional banks have already shown strong interest, though Maximum intends to serve institutions of every size in time. The capital will be used to speed up product development, grow the engineering and operations teams, and support implementations across its expanding customer base.
Maximum founder Randy Fernando said, 'For decades, banks have attempted to serve the evolving needs of customers on infrastructure that was never designed for today's world. The advancement of AI is creating a paradigm shift in financial services, and banks can't keep pace by relying on legacy providers. Maximum will provide banks with ultimate control, powerful agentic capabilities, and the tools to innovate, enabling them to deliver exceptional new experiences to their customers and partners.'