The online banker Simple, one of the most prominent technology companies in Portland over the past decade, is being discontinued as part of its own sales process.
Ordinary employees gave notice of the pending closure on Wednesday and told customers on Thursday, calling it a ‘strategic decision’. Simple customers said they would transfer their accounts to BBVA but would not set a timetable for the change.
In November, BBVA announced that it would sell its US business to PNC Financial Services Group for $ 11.6 billion.
“We focus on the things that make the most sense for the future of the company, whether on an independent basis or on a potentially combined basis with PNC,” BBVA said in a written statement on Thursday. BBVA is also discontinuing two other financial technology services it owns, Azlo and Open Platform.
Founded in 2009, Simple moved from Brooklyn to Portland two years later amid a renaissance in Oregon technology entrepreneurship. It was immediately one of the city’s most prominent technology companies, and promised a consumer-friendly, free fee approach to online banking.
Simple sold to the Spanish banker BBVA in 2014 for $ 117 million and never found its support under the new ownership. The company struggled to compete as larger banks adopted many of the convenient online banking features, helping Simple to track.
The company wavered as it tried to resolve a central tension whether it was primarily a bank or a technology company. Simple fired 10% of its staff in 2017 and replaced almost all of its executive staff. Nine months later, Josh Reich, founder’s CEO, resigned.
“I suspect PNC is prioritizing their existing online banking technology,” Reich tweeted on Thursday. ‘I’m sad about the closure, but happy for the journey and the lasting change that Simple has had in the global banking world. Customer experience matters. Great teams matter. ”
Simple was one of the largest technology employers in Portland. According to BBVA, its current staff is 220 in the North West.
BBVA did not disclose details about Simple’s dissolution or the fate of its Southeast Portland office on the east side of Hawthorne Bridge.
“There are still many details to address as part of the entity’s winding up,” BBVA said in a statement on Thursday. “As we work through regulations through approval and integration plans, our staffing needs will become clearer in the longer term.”
Simply embodied the aspirations and disappointments of the Portland technology community in the years following the Great Recession. Simple took advantage of mobile technology, social networking and cloud computing and was a new generation of hopeful Oregon businesses that ended the historic reliance on hardware manufacturing in Silicon Forest.
Others of the generation included Jive Software, Urban Airship (now Airship), Elemental Technologies, Puppet, Jama Software, Janrain and Act-On Software. Together, they have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital and employed thousands of people.
However, everyone endured their own share of the setbacks, and none really became a big company. Some are still working – Puppet says he hopes to be known this year – while others are being sold to larger technology companies that continue to operate in Portland.
No major new technology venture has sprung up in Oregon since the 1990s, and the old ones are gradually disappearing. The $ 8 billion sale of Wilsonville-based Flir Systems, announced Monday, leaves just two listed technology companies in Oregon.
Simple’s dedicated customer service and its commitment to helping customers save money rather than spend it has distinguished it from larger, more established banks and deserves a dedicated following among customers.
There was an outpouring of disappointment at some of the customers on Thursday.
– Mike Rogoway | [email protected] | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699