After A Pair Of Acquisitions in 2018, Banker’s Toolbox Becomes Abrigo

Last week, Bankers’ Toolbox changed its name to Abrigo. The company made two major acquisitions in 2018 in MainStreet Technologies (MST) and Sageworks. The name change was to allow for the technology firm to place all of the brands under one brand name. In a press release, Abrigo stated that it is another step in looking to be the premier technology platform for financial institutions. Its mission as a company is to “Make Things Happen.” 

All financial institutions have major hurdles to overcome in the area of regulatory requirements and cyber fraud, but regional/community banks and other financial institutions have a particularly hard road to climb due to limited resources and new technologies that fight for the smaller institutions’ market share more than the larger banks. They are facing challenges on both the low end of and the high end of the retail banking market. While the company will not turn down the business of larger institutions, they have clearly identified this issue and are spending time and money on a solution.  

“You don’t have to be the biggest to make big things happen. You just need the right partner. Our family of customers has grown significantly over the last few years. We believe the Abrigo name positions us to better communicate our enhanced platform capabilities and our focus on helping our customers not only survive, but thrive,” said Wayne Roberts, Chief Executive Officer of Abrigo.

According to Abrigo customer Marvin Tellez, VP and System Administrator at Veritex Community Bank, "The main thing that stands out about Abrigo customer service is their willingness to help and react at a moment's notice to make the client happy."   

With the 2018 acquisitions, the new brand now claims they own 50% of the share of middle market financial institutions. The company also stated that it is still open to new strategic acquisitions that will help gain market share.  Abrigo is backed by private equity firm Accel-KKR (AKKR) that focuses on software and IT-enabled businesses in the middle market.  AKKR expressed interest in further investment into Abrigio both through strategic organic growth as well as enabling the company to acquisitions that will help the company gain market share.   

Abrigo is looking to take a leadership position in a crowded field. Fintech firms have dramatically increased over the past decade, but banks face a challenge of which tech firms can offer different parts of a comprehensive solution. The question is does it make sense to customize your IT challenges with different vendors and not create a dependency on any one company, or do you look for a company that can offer you a more comprehensive solution that is sensitive to your institution’s particular needs.