NASHVILLE-based Thread Bancorp Inc. this week reported raising roughly $27.64MM in equity capital from 37 investors, via a round with an "indefinite" ceiling.

Thread reported similar equity raises in 2023 and 2021 that achieved total offerings and (investors) of approximately $25.2MM (83) and $46.7MM (47), respectively, according to Thread SEC filings.

Altogether, those numbers tally $100MM in equity capital raised to-date.

Thread Bank describes itself as "a digital-first financial technology community bank that aims to enhance customer engagement through innovative solutions. Thread Bank offers a modern website, a CRM system, and a mobile app to simplify banking for businesses and individuals. Our embedded banking solution helps business technology platforms provide secure banking experiences. We also partner with other banks, credit unions, and FinTechs to integrate compliant financial solutions."

Details on product and service offerings are here: Thread Connect for embedded financial services and Thread Banking for digital and traditional banking.

Joe Maxwell

Thread CEO and President Chris Black executed the latest SEC filing, in association with Thread Chairman Joe Maxwell, Chief Accounting Officer Clif Howard, and Directors Sarah Biller, Gene Dibble, John Philpott, Bud Watts, and Kirk Wycoff.

Thread Bank (formerly known as Volunteer Bancorp) is successor to Civis Bank, with its provenance running back to the 1906-vintage bank that Thread still operates in Rogersville, Tenn., a four-hour drive east of Nashville.

Thread's 2021 recapitalization of Civis was led by Hermann Capital Management (St. Louis) and Patriot Financial Partners (Radnor, Pa.)

In April this year, Thread reported that since 2021 it has seen "a 35% year-over-year increase in deposit growth through Thread Bank’s personal, business and branch banking (from roughly $100 million in deposits in 2021 to over $700 million currently), a 200% increase in mobile and online banking adoption, and a 30% reduction in operating costs through digital process automation. In addition, Thread has experienced strong employment growth in East Tennessee, as well as the Nashville area."

Glancing at its Careers page today, it seems likely a portion of its fresh capital could go toward its "strategic expansion" of its lending infrastructure, given its announcement of its search for a director of capital markets and lending solutions.

The company is also ramping-up operations in its 20K sq. ft. corporate headquarters in The Pitch on Ensley Boulevard in Nashville's Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood. The Pitch is owned by investors including entrepreneur Robert Echols.

BACKDROP

In venture-oriented minds, Thread's journey of the past four years may count as one of the brighter spots in the modern history of Tennessee community banking and financial technology.

After all, the FDIC's State Banking Performance Summary shows that in Q1 2005 Tennessee's state-chartered commercial banks numbered 159, with only two (2) reporting assets greater than $1BN.

Today, 20 years later, the FDIC's tally as-of June 30, 2025, shows Tennessee with 101 state chartered commercial banks, with 25 of them then-reporting assets greater than $1BN, and 76 reporting assets lower than that -- a case study in consolidation in the financial sector.

Such trends accelerated with the Global Financial Crisis (aka Panic of 2008) and are widely viewed as likely to continue, according to Morningstar.

Since at least 2008, pressures to consolidate all bank regulation at the federal level has worried many advocates for state-supervised community banks.

Such pressures increased further with 2023's failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Bank, and Signature Bank.

Of course, there was another significant incident that hit closer to home. 

The 2024 collapse of Andreesen Horowitz-backed banking as a service (BaaS) platform Synapse Financial Technologies affected bank-customer accounts holding $90MM or more, with major fallout at an Arkansas-supervised institution that has its principal office in Memphis -- Evolve Bank & Trust. 

Synapse was founded by a computer engineering student at the University of Memphis -- Sankaet Pathak, who came to America on a student visa.

Ten years ago, VNC wrote about Pathak's then-fledgling Synapse, right here.

Synapse's Chapter 11 petition has been under consideration for 18 months in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California (1:24-bk-10646-MB). More recently, FINRA charged some executives within closely aligned Synapse Brokerage with misconduct.

Technology remains a priority for community bankers -- witness remarks by an East Tennessee native, Brandon Milhorn, who is president and CEO of the Conference of State Banking Supervisors (CSBS), who recently said, "Investments in new technologies could...fundamentally change the way banks are supervised and help identify and mitigate risks more effectively and efficiently.”

Yet, tech innovation competes with other concerns: CSBS reported earlier this month that community bankers' concerns regarding such "externalities" as regulatory burden have "shifted dramatically," with greater risks now seen in net interest margins, core deposit growth, economic conditions, cost of technology and cost of funds.

Notably, given the trend of bank consolidation, CSBS survey respondents said they view competitive risks as primarily associated with local branches of regional rivals, plus providers of payment services and nonbank institutions.

OPEN RECORDS

During a recent Nashville meeting of members and friends of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government (TCOG), several speakers referred to the fact that over the years Tennessee legislators have amended Tennessee open-records laws to allow agencies more than 400 exemptions, collectively.

Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions (TDFI) Commissioner Greg Gonzales, who has been with the agency 39 years -- including two decades as commissioner -- has expressed support for prudent bank and fintech innovation, as VNC previously reported.

Earlier this year, in keeping with FOIA-Open Records rules, VNC formally requested documents related to the commissioner's innovation plans, if any.

However, referring in effect to TDFI's open-records exemption, the commissioner, represented by TDFI Assistant General Counsel Rachel Gatlin JD, responded with rejection of VNC's request to review any such TDFI pro-innovation plans.

For the record, VNC's reading of the law cited by Gatlin (via Justia) indicated TDFI records may be "revealed," at the discretion of the commissioner.

AGC Gatlin explained, in part, "For many years, commissioners of the Department have invoked Tenn. Code §§ ANN. 45-1-120 and other confidentiality provisions to safeguard Department information. The Department maintains highly sensitive individual financial and commercial information. Moreover, concern over consumer privacy and identity is a major factor in this Department's approach to the protection of records and the Department has made a concerted effort not to establish any disclosure precedent that might weaken or jeopardize the security of Department records generally. The commissioner, Department examiners and employees have taken an oath to safeguard all department records, and Tenn. Code Ann. 45-1-109(b) provides the willful violation of this oath is a criminal offense."

In September, VNC asked a CSBS source for top-of-mind thoughts on which U.S. states have some claim to leadership in bank-fintech innovativeness. 

They quickly responded with a small sample from the larger pool of candidates:

NOTES

FDIC Consent Order: Thread Bank has been operating since May 2024 under an FDIC Consent Order, with issues spanning strategic planning, profit plans, risk management, anti-money laundering (AML) and countering funding of terrorism (CFT), suspicious activity reporting, BaaS and LaaS partner review, liquidity and funds management, et cetera. 

Via Apple.com: Thread offers one-each app for Business banking - Personal Banking - Legacy Civis Users.

Thread's guidance on The Sweep and related: The Synapse debacle has surely sensitized digital banking patrons to the importance of Sweeps, Program Banks, etc. See these Thread documents: Program Banks (26 today, including Thread Bank) | The Sweep Disclosure | DIP-APY | Disclosures 

Serendipity: Asked "Where can I send audit confirmation requests?" the Thread FAQ answers, "Thread Bank leverages Thomson Reuters' Confirmation solution" -- with no mention of the fact that Confirmation.com was conjured-up right here in Nashville over a 25-year period by Brian Fox and friends, before being sold to Thomson Reuters.

See more on Thread Chairman Joe Maxwell's entrepreneurial journey, as reported here. VNC 

. last edited 1800 30 October 2025