PrecisionLender, founded by NC School of Science and Mathematics grad, acquired in $510M deal

CHARLOTTE — Fintech startup PrecisionLender — co-founded by North Carolina School of Science in Mathematics grad Carl Ryden — is now under new ownership.

Q2 Holdings today announced it has completed the acquisition of the Charlotte-based startup, also known as Lender Performance Group, in a cash transaction of about $510 million. The deal was originally announced by Q2, a secure, cloud-based digital transformation solutions company headquartered in Austin, Texas, on Oct.1.

Founded in 2009, Charlotte-based PrecisionLender is one of the fastest growing enterprise SaaS providers of data-driven sales enablement, pricing and portfolio management solutions for financial institutions (FI) globally. More than 13,000 bankers at approximately 150 banks — ranging from under $1B to over $1T in assets— use PrecisionLender’s solution, according to its website.

“We are thrilled with the outstanding talent, culture and industry expertise the PrecisionLender team brings to the Q2 family,” said Matt Flake, CEO of Q2, in a statement. “We are also excited about the potential we have to help our customers improve margins, profitability and the quality of their relationship with their key accounts using our combined data insights and commercial banking solutions.”

Q2 said the combined company will expand its corporate banking capabilities and “position Q2 as a leader in digital transformation solutions for FIs in the commercial banking space.”

“The PrecisionLender team is excited to be a part of Q2 and will continue to operate as it has with additional infrastructure and support from Q2 to advance our product offerings,” added Ryden, in a statement.

CARL RYDEN, HOMEGROWN ENTREPRENEUR

Ryden is a well-known entrepreneur on the local Triangle ecosystem, but he didn’t come from privilege.

He grew up in eastern North Carolina where his mother worked two jobs, at the local Wal-Mart store and as a waitress, to support their family. He was a recipient of free and reduced school lunches through the Federal and State assistance programs, according to a WRAL TechWire article profiling Ryder in October 2018,

The trajectory of his life would change dramatically when he received admission to the North Carolina School of Science in Mathematics in Durham.

“Behind many of the entrepreneurial companies in North Carolina is an NCSSM alumnus,” said Ryden, listing key roles that alumni play at Red Hat, Pendo, Fandango, Sageworks, and others, at the time.

However, he never forgot his humble beginnings. Last December, he donated a multi-million gift to the school to establish The Ryden Program for Innovation and Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.