In a flurry of activity, the cloud banking solutions provider appointed Sean Desmond as CEO while granting a big shareholder, HMI Capital Management, a seat on its expanded board of directors.
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Cloud banking solutions provider nCino Inc. has appointed chief product officer Sean Desmond as its new CEO, expanded its board of directors to give a large shareholder a seat, and acquired integration technology provider Sandbox Banking for $52.5 million.
Wilmington, North Carolina-based nCino kicked off a flurry of activity on Feb. 3, announcing that Desmond had taken the CEO reins from Pierre Naudé, who served in the role for 13 years and will continue to serve as executive chairman of the board “to ensure a smooth transition.”
“I will continue to remain actively engaged with nCino as executive chairman of the board and support Sean through a smooth transition,” Naudé posted on LinkedIn. “I am confident that he is the right leader to drive the next chapter of growth and innovation, and fulfill nCino’s vision for an intelligent platform that delivers meaningful business outcomes to financial institutions globally through our market-leading data and AI initiatives.”
Desmond, 52, joined nCino as chief customer success officer in 2013, and after being appointed chief product officer in May, 2024 managed two-thirds of the company’s employees. Desmond will stand for election to the board of directors at nCino’s 2025 annual shareholder meeting, and will earn a base salary of $500,000 a year plus stock incentives worth up to $8.2 million, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Sean Desmond
“My focus will be on mobilizing the company to meet the moment – which is to deliver the power of the only platform that stands on the foundation of the richest dataset in fintech, with embedded AI capabilities, to stay true to our mission of transforming financial services through innovation, reputation and speed,” Desmond said in a statement.
A week after announcing the CEO transition, nCino announced that it had entered into a cooperation agreement with a large shareholder, San Francisco-based investment firm HMI Capital Management L.P.
According to the agreement, HMI Capital has been an investor in nCino since January 2021, and owns 5.8 percent of its outstanding shares.
Under the terms of the agreement, nCino expanded its board of directors to 10 members to appoint HMI Capital founding partner and Chief Investment Officer Justin Nyweide as the investment firm’s representative on the board.
Nyweide, 45, will serve on the board’s audit committee and stand for reelection on a slate of company-endorsed director nominees at the 2025 annual meeting, nCino informed investors.
Justin Nyweide
In a statement, Nyweide called nCino a “best-in-class vertical market software company that is a clear leader in serving the needs of its financial services customers.”
Finally, on Tuesday, nCino announced it had acquired Sandbox Banking, a Boston, Massachusetts-based software company.
Sandbox Banking claims its Glyue integration platform is used by more than 100 financial institutions to connect their core banking platforms with software solutions that power lending, deposits, customer relationship management, document management, underwriting, mobile banking and analytics.
Chris Gufford, who succeeded Desmond as nCino’s chief product officer, said the acquisition will help the company serve banks and credit unions facing critical demands for operational efficiency and regulatory compliance.
Chris Gufford
“We’ve closely partnered with Sandbox Banking for years through many integration projects, so we’ve seen first-hand how this technology layer improves transparency, reduces integration friction, accelerates project timelines, and creates a hub for better data connectivity,” Gufford said, in a statement. “This acquisition gives nCino a better ability to empower these institutions with a flexible, reliable data environment for greater agility to quickly integrate third party systems, AI and new technologies without disruptions.”
NCino’s mortgage clients include Synergy One Lending and Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation. Most of its revenue comes from technology services it provides to global banks like Bank of America, Barclays, Santander, and TD Bank; enterprise banks including Truist Bank and U.S. Bank; regional community banks like Washington Federal Bank and M&F Bank; and credit unions like Navy Federal Credit Union, SAFE Credit Union and Marine Credit Union.
In its most recent quarterly report to investors, nCino cut its net loss for the quarter ending Oct. 31, 2024 by 67 percent, to $5.3 million, with revenue up 14 percent from a year ago, to $138.8 million.
Shares in nCino, which in the last 12 months have traded for as little as $28.09 and as much as $43.20, closed at $33.34 Tuesday.
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