Intesa Sanpaolo has backed up its recent contract with Thought Machine by investing £40 million in the cloud-based core banking vendor.
Last week the Italian lender confirmed that it has roped in Thought Machine to build the backbone for a new mass market digital bank, Isybank, that will initially target its four million mass market users in the country.
The funding sees Intesa Sanpaolo join Tier One banks like JPMorgan Chase, ING, Standard Chartered, SEB and Lloyds as a Thought Machine investor. The vendor, founded in 2014 by former Google engineer Paul Taylor, has now raised more than $340 million and hit unicorn status.
Intesa Sanpaolo has also indicated an intention to extend Thought Machine’s core banking platform into the group’s wider infrastructure, replacing mainframe-based technology and moving to cloud infrastructure.
Carlo Messina, CEO, Intesa Sanpaolo, says: “This new digital bank will evolve our retail business from incumbent to fintech challenger in the mass market, with the option to expand internationally.
"We chose Thought Machine as our partner due to its international standing as a fintech innovator. We believe so strongly that Thought Machine is the right partner for this transformation that we are also announcing our investment in the company to be part of its growth story.”