Standard Treasury

Overview

Standard Treasury set out to replace bank integrations built from giant FTP files and hundreds-page specifications with a REST API. Founded in 2013 by Daniel Kimerling, Brent Goldman, and Zac Townsend, the company sold banks white-labeled developer platforms for account operations, money movement, foreign exchange, and event notifications.^[1][2]

The need was real; the route to market was not. The founders concluded in 2014 that they should build a bank, failed to raise a Series A for that strategy in early 2015, and aligned with Silicon Valley Bank instead. On August 6, 2015, SVB acquired the team and assets on undisclosed terms.^[3] The team continued API work inside SVB, but the packet does not prove survival of the separate brand, an independently sold product, or a particular body of source code.

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Founding Story

The founding problem came from Kimerling's prior company, Giftly. Connecting that product to banking infrastructure exposed an integration world organized around bulk FTP files and specifications that ran for hundreds of pages. Banks held the accounts and payment rails that software companies needed, but their interfaces were not designed for modern application development.^[2]

Kimerling and Townsend had known one another for more than a decade. The banking API was their original Y Combinator application idea, although they briefly explored alternatives. Townsend had worked at Stripe and in Newark mayor Cory Booker's administration, giving him exposure to both payments and policy. Goldman joined as technical co-founder and CTO. The current YC profile lists Kimerling as CEO, Goldman as CTO, and Townsend as head of product.^[1][2]

Before committing to the product, the founders interviewed hundreds of founders, CFOs, and finance executives about what businesses wanted from banks. Kimerling captured the demand with one question: "why can't banking be like Stripe or Braintree?"^[2] The comparison was about interface quality, not becoming a card processor. Standard Treasury wanted to give banks a modern surface through which business customers could automate treasury and accounting work.

The company joined YC's Summer 2013 batch. Contemporary reporting named the legal entity Financial Tech Inc., doing business as Standard Treasury, and said the three founders started it in 2013.^[4] A $2.7 million seed round announced in May 2014 included RRE Ventures, Index Ventures, Data Collective, SV Angel, Y Combinator, Jay Mandelbaum, and Paul Buchheit.^[5] Owler independently records the round; Andreessen Horowitz's current investment list includes the company, but the packet does not identify its check or round.^[6][7]

Only one verbatim founder quote appears in the packet. A second cannot be supplied responsibly.

Timeline

• 2013: The company was founded, joined YC's Summer batch, and announced a REST API for bank services.^[1][2]
• July 2013: It said it was piloting with an unnamed top-five US bank and working with unnamed regional and midsize banks.^[2]
• May 2014: Standard Treasury announced a $2.7 million seed round.^[5]
• 2014: The team decided owning a bank was the best route to its API-banking vision.^[3]
• Early 2015: The company failed to raise a Series A for the bank-building plan and moved toward close alignment with one bank.^[3]
• August 6, 2015: SVB acquired the team and assets; the team joined its information-technology organization.^[8]
• November 2015: SVB was taking beta signups for API banking.^[9]
• 2016: An industry report described SVB as pursuing an open platform for banking and payment services.^[10]
• 2024: Former engineer David Jarvis said the startup had been right about the need but wrong about the business model.^[11]