February 2, 2021 – Horicon, WI – Horicon Bank, a community financial institution in southeastern Wisconsin, recently acquired the technology and talent of Monotto, a financial technology company based in Atlanta, GA.
Horicon Bank is a billion-dollar financial institution with twenty offices in Wisconsin. Often looked to as a progressive community bank with awards for technology, marketing and top workplace, Horicon Bank worked closely with Monotto to advance their digital bank offerings before the acquisition.
Monotto, led by Christian Ruppe, Jared Kopelman, and Joshua de Leon, has a mission to improve financial literacy and planning for millennials. Ruppe says his company wasn’t actively seeking a strategic partner – but Horicon Bank made it clear their commitment to the future of financial technology, for not only their customers but the market as a whole.
“Horicon Bank was different. They have a great reputation. And we realized we couldn’t reach our biggest vision as a Fintech without a platform like Horicon Bank,” said Ruppe.
Ruppe went on to explain that an innovative vision for the future was exactly what they were looking for. “With Horicon Bank, our visions aligned perfectly.”
Horicon Bank’s Chief Information Officer, Mark Nelson, explained this partnership came about with the help of their core banking provider, Finastra.
“Finastra’s open finance strategy and developer platform, FusionFabric.cloud, allows us to work with other fintechs to offer the best product solutions to our customers,” said Nelson, “and by bringing Monotto’s software development capabilities in house, we hope to be able to offer those same solutions to other financial institutions in a step forward to modernize the world of banking.”
Bank President, Fred F. Schwertfeger says the acquisition is a shift in the traditional community banking model.
“We believe this vision is an extension of our vison to help our customers enjoy working with us and make their lives better,” said Schwertfeger. “We’re thrilled to welcome Monotto to the team.
Horicon Bank has added the expertise of Christian Ruppe as the VP of Digital Banking and Joshua de Leon as the Digital Banking Architect.
