Maximum has raised $30 million in seed funding to build an AI-native operating system for banks, replacing legacy core infrastructure that still powers much of the U.S. banking industry. The Miami-based company emerged from stealth Tuesday with backing from CRV, Pear VC, Restive, Plug and Play Ventures, and Anthemis, in what it describes as one of the largest seed rounds in fintech.
Of nearly 5,000 U.S. banks, more than 70% still run on core systems built in the last century, according to Maximum. These older platforms make it harder and more expensive for banks to launch products, automate operations, respond to threats, and meet customer expectations. Maximum's platform embeds AI at the foundational level rather than layering it onto existing infrastructure, allowing financial institutions to deploy custom AI agents that automate operational workflows, provide real-time visibility into customer activity, and support product launches.
The company was founded by Randy Fernando, a repeat fintech entrepreneur who previously sold Vault to Acorns in 2017 and Power to Marqeta in 2023. Several investors who backed those earlier ventures also participated in Maximum's round.
Security as AI expands the threat surface
Maximum says its platform includes security protocols and controls designed to help banks respond to increasingly intelligent and persistent attacks while managing operational and customer risks. The company is already working with community and regional banks and plans to serve institutions of all sizes.
Fernando has assembled a team of operators who previously worked with him across Vault and Power, bringing experience in banking, payments, and financial infrastructure.
Funding priorities
Maximum will use the $30 million to accelerate product development, expand its engineering and operations organizations, and support implementations at its growing customer bank base.
"For decades, banks have attempted to serve the evolving needs of customers on infrastructure that was never designed for today's world," Fernando said. "The advancement of AI is creating a paradigm shift in financial services, and banks can't keep pace. Maximum will provide banks with ultimate control, powerful agentic capabilityes, and the tools to innovate, enabling them to deliver exceptional new experiences to their customers and partners."
Caitlin Bolnick Rellas, general partner at CRV, said her firm sees banking technology at an inflection point. "Every generation of infrastructure eventually reaches a point where incremental improvements are no longer enough. We believe banking technology has reached that moment. Randy has repeatedly identified foundational shifts before the broader market, and we're excited to back him for a second time as Maximum builds what we believe will become the operating system for the next generation of banking."
Why this matters for operations professionals
For operations teams in banks, the practical impact of Maximum's approach is about replacing manual, error-prone workflows with automation that runs on current data, not nightly batches. If the company delivers on its roadmap, operations staff can offload some of the most repetitive parts of compliance, customer onboarding, and fraud monitoring to agents that act on live information. The question for ops leaders is readiness: which workflows are safe to delegate, which need to remain under human control, and how to audit AI decisions when they need to. Teams that start mapping those boundaries now will have an easier time introducing automation with the AI for Operations and AI for Finance conversations happening across the industry.
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