Alkami Puts Digital Banking Business up for Sale

Digital banking software firm Alkami Technology has reportedly put itself up for sale.

The move came after the company saw interest from potential buyers and increased pressure to sell from activist investor Jana Partners, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Those sources said Alkami’s advisors have begun connecting with private equity groups about a sale.

Based in Texas, Alkami offers cloud-based digital banking software and related services to banks and credit unions. Its services include account opening, payments, fraud protection, data analytics and customer engagement tools, the report added.

Jana revealed a 5.1% stake in Alkami in April and has said it believes the company’s shares were undervalued, pushing it to explore selling to a strategic buyer or private ​equity firm outfit, Reuters said.

Alkami ​has a market value of about $2 billion, the report noted, though its shares have dropped by around 15% in the last 12 months amid concerns ​over cooling growth ‌and a rougher spending environment for FinTechs.

In other digital banking news, recent PYMNTS Intelligence research shows these banks’ customers are increasingly using mobile wallets as their default payment method.

“Pay by Bank Deep Dive: Digital Bank Users Are Ready to Switch,” a PYMNTS Intelligence report with Trustly, found that digital bank users are younger, more mobile-focused and far more likely than other consumers to prefer digital wallets.

“That familiarity could also make them receptive to Pay by Bank, which lets shoppers authorize payments directly from a bank account through a digital flow,” PYMNTS wrote recently.

The research found that 44.6% of digital bank customers prefer digital wallets, versus 22.7% of the overall population. A little less than 41% of digital bank users prefer wallets for retail purchases, while 29.5% favor debit cards and 18.9% prefer credit cards.

The report also found that digital wallet use among digital bank customers goes far beyond one or two mobile-first categories, leading in payments for retail, subscriptions, rideshare, gambling and account-to-account transactions.

“That broad use gives banks, merchants and payment providers a clearer path to introduce new payment options,” the report added.