Cross River Bank confirms massive fundraise from Eldridge and a16z

Cross River Bank — which provides banking infrastructure to major fintechs — announced it raised $620 million in funding at a more than $3 billion valuation on Wednesday, confirming earlier reports.

Why it matters: It’s not often you hear of a licensed bank taking on venture capital, but Cross River would argue that it’s more of a technology provider that happens to have a bank charter.

• The round was led by Eldridge and Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from T. Rowe Price, Whale Rock, and Hanaco Ventures.

Cross River Bank considers itself a one-stop shop that can serve all types of fintech clients, whether they be digital banks themselves, online lenders, or even crypto companies.

• While it does have a single branch in Teaneck, N.J. — mostly because New Jersey requires a physical location to operate — the real headquarters is about three miles east in Fort Lee, where the company’s tech and business operations are located.

Between the lines: The company first attracted investor interest back in 2016, when VCs recognized that Cross River was the bank of record for companies like Affirm, Coinbase, and Transferwise, CEO Gilles Gade tells Axios.

• But now those VC relationships are not just about providing capital for growth — they are also a source of deal flow for the bank, Gade says.

• “When you have an Andreessen Horowitz that [invests] in 2016 and then 2018 and then again now, that speaks volumes, in the sense that they understand the role that we play and they want us to cater to their portfolio companies.”

By the numbers: Cross River powers banking, lending and payments for 80 big fintech partners that you’ve probably heard of — including companies like Checkout.com, Divvy, Rocket Loans, and Stripe.

• As a result, last year it originated about $29 billion of loans and does up to a million transactions a day, Gade says.