Digital bank Cogni is planning to officially launch this week on March 20, 2020.
Last year, it was reported that Cogni raised $5.4 million in a seed round and intended to launch towards the end of 2019. To date, Cogni has raised $6.6 million in total in funding. Investors include The CXO Fund, Scott Minerd (Co-Founder, Chairman of Investments, and Global Chief Investment Officer of Guggenheim Partners), Hanwha Investment & Securities, Extol Capital, WorldQuant Ventures, Barclays, Gregg Kidd of Hard Yaka and others.
Now it appears, Cogni is ready to offer services to US consumers.
The Fintech says it aims to 0ffer a “straightforward account and no hidden fees.” Cogni’s goal is to connect a member’s banking with their lifestyle by combining banking, commerce, and lifestyle on a single platform.
At launch, Cogni will offer many different services and features including: no-fee checking accounts with no account minimums, free cash withdrawal at over 55,000 ATM’s, free peer-to-peer transactions, virtual and physical debit cards, the ability to create single-use debit cards to protect from fraud and hidden recurring fees, and multiple funding options: cash deposit through Visa Redylink, in-app check deposit (available the first week in April), direct deposit, ACH Transfer and P2P – according to a company release.
Soon, Cogni says it will integrate with Apple Pay, Venmo, and other payments Apps.
Archie Ravishankar, founder & CEO of Cogni, said they are excited to share the digital bank with its first users:
“We’re taking a phased approach in building Cogni. Learning from our members is key as we continue to develop our offering. We’ll launch with banking features and then expand to integrate commerce and lifestyle options into our ecosystem.”
As the market for digital banks keeps adding new entrants and thus more competition, Cogni expects to compete based on personalized services and offerings – some beyond finance.
Ravishankar said they envision the bank as the “operating system for lifestyle.”
“Lifestyles are changing and consumers want a better digital experience,” he said.
To buttress the executive bench, Cogni recently made three senior-level hires. Liam Scanlan, formerly Group CFO of Tanda as VP of Finance; Scott Leff, formerly of Fiserv, who serves as Head of Platform; and Dion Davis, a former customer experience leader with Citi, has been hired as VP of Member Services and is building a U.S.- based team to manage this essential function.
Cogni was founded in 2016 by Ravishankar. The Fintech is based in New York and is a graduate of the Barclays TechStars Fintech Accelerator.
