PROVIDENCE – The Slater Technology Fund today announced it has provided $350,000 in second-round funding to Andera Inc. to accelerate its product development. Slater had provided Andera with an initial investment of $50,000 in April 2005.
The Providence-based financial technology company has been creating Web-based account opening and funding software for banks and credit unions since its founding in 2000. By the end of last year, Andera had more than 100 customers, nearly twice as many as at the end of 2005 and more than any rival vendor, according to a recent report from the Aite Group LLC.
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“We have worked extremely hard to develop a very robust, yet focused solution,” said Andera CEO Charlie Kroll. The online account-opening market is “relatively new” and “still growing rapidly,” he said. “We are looking forward to accelerating our lead in the market as the popularity of integrated account opening and funding increases.”
This year, the company has completed a rigorous SAS70 Type II Audit, based on customer data-protection standards developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts. And this month, it announced an alliance with S1 Corporation, a global provider of customer-interaction and payment systems that now uses Andera technology to allow customers to open and fund accounts online.
“Andera has more than proven itself a well-managed company with a viable business model,” said Thorne Sparkman, managing director of the Slater Technology Fund. “Charlie Kroll is an intuitive leader with a terrific eye for innovation and opportunity. We know Andera will continue to grow under his guidance and we are pleased to have the chance to help further its success.”
Andera (www.andera.com) offers automated online account opening and other products and services for retail financial institutions.
The Slater Technology Fund, established in 1997 by then-Gov. Lincoln Almond and the R.I. General Assembly, provides seed capital to companies committed to building technology-based businesses in Rhode Island. Additional information is available at www.slaterfund.com.
