TMT Series #3: nCino, a driving force behind banks' digital transformation journey

Everything you need to know about nCino and its quest to digitalize the banking industry

In a world where companies in many sectors have fully embraced digital transformation and made it a driving force behind their growth, the financial services industry stands, behind and alone, hindered by regulation around sensitive customer data and a risk-averse mindset as the primary justification for this late adoption.

The advent of nCino in 2012 made it one of the first companies with a cloud-native offering centered around bringing segments of banking up to speed with other sectors in terms of digital transformation.

In this latest issue of Golden Lake’s Tech Series, I give an overview of the banking ecosystem and go over the trends that have shaped the space since the 80s, I assess how Covid-19 has been a major catalyst to digital transformation within the banking industry as well as dig into nCino, to assess its competitive advantages, its strong ties with tech behemoth Salesforce and ultimately whether it is a sound investment going ahead.

Sections:

• The banking ecosystem

  • Overview

  • Tech trends in the banking space (80s to today)

  • Anatomy of next gen banking stacks

  • Pandemic and the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program): drivers of banks’ digital transformation

• nCino, a driving force behind banks’ digital transformation journeys

  • Value proposition

  • Traditional commercial loan origination process

  • Products

  • Users & target customers

  • Go-to-market strategy

  • The Salesforce relationship

  • Competitors & nCino’s differentiating factors:

  • Leadership team

  • Financials

  • Valuation

• Conclusion

The banking ecosystem

Overview

The banking ecosystem today can be divided into four main components that offer different services to different targeted clients (as seen in illustration below):

• Retail Banking: Also referred to as consumer or personal banking, this side of the industry allows consumers to manage their money by giving them access to

  basic banking services, credit, and financial advice

• Commercial and corporate banking: Commercial and corporate banking offer more complex and specialized solutions to SMEs, corporates and institutions, such as specialized lending services, cash management, benefits plans etc.

• Private banking & wealth management: Private banking and wealth management provide investment-related advice and execution of investments on behalf of affluent clients

• Investment Banking: Primarily known as financial intermediaries in transactions, Investment Banks provide complex services and financial transactions such as underwriting and assisting with M&A activity

Banks are usually categorized into “Tiers” based on their relative size to the overall banking market in terms of total banking assets, as provided by the bank’s balance sheet.