Exclusive: Digital banking startup Lumin Digital raises $115M
Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios
Lumin Digital, which provides digital banking software to banks and credit unions, raised more than $115 million at a $1.6 billion post-money valuation, CEO Jeff Chambers tells Axios exclusively.
Why it matters: The company is expanding relationships with financial institutions as it moves beyond digital banking and pursues larger banks.
Zoom in: Light Street Capital led a $45 million growth equity investment, and more than $70 million came from 15 Lumin clients investing through a special purpose vehicle.
- Lumin remains majority owned by employees, customers and its longtime strategic investor, Velera, Chambers says.
How it works: Lumin provides cloud-based software that supports mobile apps, online banking, account opening and customer interactions for banks and credit unions.
- The company is expanding into lending, CRM and payments, with the new capital earmarked for products already on its roadmap.
- Lumin expects those additional products to account for roughly one-quarter of its revenue by the end of the decade, Chambers says.
Flashback: The financing follows a December 2024 $170 million growth equity round and more than $75 million invested by Lumin clients in March 2025.
- The March transaction included the sale of roughly $175 million of Velera's stake.
- The latest round is all primary capital going onto Lumin's balance sheet.
Between the lines: The new capital is partly intended to reassure bigger banks that Lumin has the financial resources to support them over the long term.
- "A lot of these very conservative financial institutions like to see a lot of cash on hand," Chambers says.
- He adds that giving customers an ownership stake makes them more likely to provide direct feedback, reducing some of the friction common between software vendors and their clients.
