Backbase, the Amsterdam-based banking software company, acquired Kasisto, a New York company that builds AI assistants and agents for banks. Backbase announced the deal on 23 June 2026. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Kasisto's agentic platform, its banking-specific AI and its New York team are now part of Backbase and its AI-native Banking OS. Backbase said the combined Agentic Banking suite was available immediately through the Banking OS to current and future customers.
Lance Berks, who has led Kasisto as chief executive since October 2024, said agentic AI "will reshape banking over the next decade."
What Kasisto built
Kasisto was founded in 2013. Its earlier product, KAI, was a conversational AI platform that banks used to build virtual assistants. In 2019 the company said KAI could handle up to 90% of customer questions without human help and that more than 18 million people used it daily. Its more recent products are KAIgentic, an agentic AI platform for banks and credit unions, and KaiGPT, a large language model tuned for banking.
Reported clients have included J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered, TD, Westpac, Mastercard, DBS and Manulife Bank. Backbase said Kasisto's agents are built to reason through customer requests and work within banking compliance and governance controls across chat, messaging and voice.
Kasisto sold its software through partnerships as well as directly. In 2019, for example, it teamed up with Moneythor to offer a combined banking product in North America and Asia-Pacific. Its platform was designed to connect to banks' systems through published APIs, with tools for banks to customise, train and improve their own assistants.
“This acquisition sharpens our position as the strategic partner for banks serious about AI transformation.”
Why Backbase is buying
Backbase launched its AI-native Banking OS in April 2026. The platform sits above a bank's core systems and coordinates work between customers, employees and AI agents. Backbase calls the idea a "Unified Frontline", in which people and agents share context, governed authority and a common record of each customer.
Backbase said the deal supports three priorities: building banking-grade agentic AI into the Banking OS, running customer operations with AI from request to resolution, including outbound contact, and growing in the United States, which it described as its largest strategic growth market. Kasisto brings an established North American customer base and engineering team.
Backbase's argument is that many banks' AI agents answer questions without completing the task behind them. Founder and chief executive Jouk Pleiter said that "Kasisto brings proven agentic AI and deep financial services intelligence" and that the deal moves Backbase toward a model in which customers state what they want and the bank carries it out under governed controls.
Berks said the two companies together represent "the convergence of the AI-native banking OS and purpose-built agentic AI and financial services intelligence."
The funding
Kasisto was backed by venture investors and banks. In September 2019 it raised a $15 million Series B extension led by Rho Capital Partners, with existing investors Oak HC/FT, Propel Venture Partners, Two Sigma Ventures, Commerce Ventures and the Partnership Fund for New York City taking part.
In July 2021 it closed a $15.5 million Series C co-led by Naples Technology Ventures and NCR. In August 2022 it added another $15.5 million to that round, led by Fidelity Information Services (FIS) in the United States and Westpac internationally, with Georgia lender BankSouth participating. That brought the Series C to $31 million.
Kasisto's total funding and headcount at the time of the sale were not disclosed.
The buyer
Pleiter founded Backbase in 2003. The company has teams across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America, and says more than 120 banks run on its platform across retail, small business and commercial, private banking and wealth management. Fintech News Singapore reported that Backbase had more than $350 million in revenue in 2025.
Pleiter said that with Kasisto inside the Banking OS, no company was better placed to lead banking's move "from conversation to resolution."
