Most fintech founders want to disrupt banks. Darragh Buckley apparently wants to invest in them.
Buckley, the founder and CEO of banking-as-a-service startup Increase, has acquired a controlling stake of over 10% in Twin City Bank, a community bank based in Longview, Washington. The transaction closed in mid-2025, triggered a Federal Reserve disclosure requirement, and received non-objection approval from the FDIC.
Here’s the part that makes this interesting: Buckley says he has no intention of folding Twin City into Increase’s operations.
A fintech founder buying banks, just not for the usual reasons
Increase, which Buckley founded in 2020 after leaving Stripe, builds developer-friendly APIs for payments and deposits. Think ACH transfers, wire payments, and real-time transactions, packaged for fintech platforms that need banking infrastructure without building it themselves. Clients include Ramp and Check.
