She Broke the Bank

Luvleen Sidhu was just 28 when she founded BankMobile with a lofty mission: to reinvent banking for millions of Americans through the power of tech. The 2015 launch presciently anticipated the coming rise in mobile banking, and six years later the Radnor, Pennsylvania based business merged with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in a transaction worth $150 million. That made Sidhu the youngest female founder and CEO ever to take a company public, and led her to even grander goals: Still at the helm of the company—now called BM Technologies—she says she wants to “create ripple effects and inspire other women.” Here’s why you should put your money on her to do just that.

- By Kevin J. Ryan. Photograph by George Etheredge

The digital banking market is pretty crowded these days. Your company is on pace for nearly $100 million in revenue in 2021. How does BM Technologies succeed there?

We have a direct-to-consumer strategy, but we also allow nonbanks and large brands to launch their own digital banks-so we're essentially B2B2C. We have higher education institutions as our clients, allowing us to reach one in every three college-bound students. In all, we have about two million account holders, and we're one of the first neo-banking fintech firms to be profitable.

How did you know it was time to go public?