The acquisition is SixThirty’s 20th positive exit
Big news from the SixThirty family—Sandbox Banking has been acquired by nCino (NASDAQ: NCNO)!
This marks a significant milestone for a company that, in many ways, embodies what we look for in fintech investments. Sandbox Banking has been a long-term partner of ours, and seeing their journey from a bold idea to a category-defining company has been nothing short of incredible.
Spotting the Opportunity Early
Back in 2017, when we first met the Sandbox team, they were tackling a major pain point that we frequently heard from our banking and credit union partners: Integrating new fintech solutions into legacy core systems was complex, expensive, and, frankly, a nightmare.
We saw the potential immediately. By working closely with our LPs—who understand these challenges firsthand—we helped Sandbox refine its positioning and messaging. That’s how the concept of the “universal adapter” was born, an idea that has since become their signature in the industry.
Scaling from Idea to Industry Standard
But great ideas alone don’t build great companies—execution does.
From the earliest days, SixThirty was hands-on in helping Sandbox grow. Together, we built the sales playbook that would take them from just two customers at the time of our first investment to over 100 by the time of exit. Through board-level support and deep operational involvement, we worked alongside the team to shape Sandbox into the industry’s go-to fintech integration platform.
In 2022, we doubled down, investing further to help solidify Sandbox’s role as the connective tissue between banks, credit unions, and fintech innovators. At the time, we wrote:
When we met Ravi in 2017, he described his idea as “building the fintech appstore for banks and credit unions.” It was already apparent that SMB financial institutions were facing mounting pressure to digitally transform, or else; and in order to implement, they would need help. Fast forward to today, and Sandbox has solidified product-market fit with 75+ customers. Sandbox has “productized” the integration of fintech apps with core systems for SMB financial institutions.
The 2022 version of “building the fintech appstore” is refined based on years of growth and learnings. Today, Sandbox stands to build a unique distribution network for fintech digital enablers. For every new core and every new third-party digital enabler that Sandbox connects, the greater the reach and clout of the Glyue ecosystem.
A Defining Exit & The Future Ahead
Over the years, Sandbox built something truly unique—a mission-critical integration platform that transformed a thorny, technical challenge into a scalable business. By the end of 2024, their customer base had expanded more than 50x since our initial investment, cementing their place as the fintech integration-platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) for banks.
Now, with nCino, they have the opportunity to take that impact even further. As one of the most respected public fintech companies, nCino is the perfect home for Sandbox to continue solving the industry’s toughest challenges at scale.
A huge congratulations to Ravi, Skye, Jean, and the entire Sandbox team on this incredible outcome. We couldn’t be more excited to see what’s next! 🚀
