In particular, Curql, a consortium of credit unions, participated in deals for Amount, a loan origination system, and ModernFi, a deposit network. (Several regional banks also recently made direct investments in ModernFi.) The solutions they’ve invested in suggest a clear-headed approach to innovation based on business needs.

Top deals in Q3 for US banking sector fintechs were:

Amount: $30 million Series E. Amount is an onboarding, loan origination, and decisioning platform for products targeted at small- and medium-sized businesses. The funding will be used to expand Amount’s business in the credit union sector and fund software development, including the “application’s experience and workflows.”

Every: $23 million Series A. Every is an all-in-one banking, accounting, and human resources platform for startups and helps with incorporation. It competes with banks that offer services tailored to startups, particularly related to treasury management, and in the fintech space, with the likes of Mercury, Gusto, and Stripe Atlas. It’s an example of an embedded finance startup, using a partnership with Thread Bank to provide deposit accounts and a partnership with Atomic Invest and Pershing for treasury and money market accounts in addition to other business management tools.

Comun: $22 million Series A. Comun is a neobank that offers services to Latin American immigrants in the United States. It may be shifting its business model from a neobank-typical focus on interchange to fees on remittances and facilitating other transactions. A focus on remittances may put it into competition with Wise, which has its own banking product. Additionally, Comun has reportedly cut out middleware and built direct integrations to its partner bank, Community Federal Savings Bank, avoiding some recent complications surrounding the Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) space.

ModernFi: $5 million Series A. ModernFi is a deposit network that raised a top-up round to its Series A in Q1. The most recent round of funding included Curql and was touted as funding the formation of ModernFi’s credit union services organization, designed to scale its deposit network for credit unions. ModernFi competes with IntraFi and R&T with a pitch “to power growth at community and regional banks” and software and integrations with a “frictionless account experience.”

Fintech funding isn’t just a number — bankers should keep an eye on which companies relevant to their industry are being funded and who the investors are. Fintechs getting investment point to potential partnerships and competitive threats, and investments from peers show where others see opportunities. Being a sole investor in fintechs may not meet a financial institution’s risk appetite, but they may pool resources in ways that help them take advantage of innovative technologies and companies.