Fishers-based tech firm Trabian acquires software platform

Fishers-based software development firm Trabian Technology Inc. has acquired a technology platform that the company says will allow it to work more quickly and efficiently.

Trabian does software development, platform integration and data automation for banks, credit unions and financial technology companies. If, for instance, a bank wants to add new features and capabilities to its online banking platform, Trabian can help it do that.

Trabian’s niche lies with community banks and large credit unions. It has done work for customers around the U.S., including Indianapolis-based Financial Center First Credit Union and Fort Wayne-based Allied Payment Network.

Trabian has acquired a middleware platform called Mesh from Franklin, Tennessee-based Core10, a tech firm that also serves the financial services industry.

The acquisition closed on Saturday. Trabian CEO Matt Dean declined to provide financial details of the deal.

Middleware, which is sometimes referred to as “software glue” or “plumbing,” is software that allows different software applications to communicate with one another.

Until now, Dean said, the company has started each customer’s project from scratch. “Everyone was bespoke, custom-built.”

The Mesh acquisition allows Trabian to now start from a reusable platform, dramatically reducing the time it takes to complete a project.

“We’re taking projects that took months and condensing them into weeks,” Dean said.

In addition to the time savings, Trabian also picked up some new Core10 customers and employees as part of the Mesh acquisition.

Dean said five of Trabian’s 35 employees are former Core10 employees who joined the company via the Mesh acquisition. Of those 35 employees, five are in the Indianapolis area. The others live around the U.S. and work remotely.

For its part, Core10 told IBJ via email that its divesture of Mesh is part of Core10’s own “evolving strategic direction.” Post-divestiture, Core10 still has two other financial platforms.

“We believe the Trabian team is well-positioned to carry Mesh forward and are excited to see how the platform continues to grow under their leadership,” Core10 CEO Jeff Hanson said via email.

Founded in 2003, Trabian spent the past four years as part of a publicly-held out-of-state bank before re-emerging in January as an independent, privately held company.

Fairmont, West Virginia-based MVB Bank Inc. acquired a majority ownership stake in Trabian in 2021.

The acquisition, Dean said, gave MVB the expertise it needed to build up the financial technology part of its business. In turn, being part of a bank gave Trabian access to the capital it needed to grow. During that time, Trabian did projects for MVB’s internal use but it also had other customers.

“We grew our customer base about threefold, our team base about threefold and revenue about fourfold during that time,” Dean said.

Being part of a bank also helped Trabian better understand how it could help its customers, Dean said. “Being outside of a bank, you only have a limited view into what’s going on. When we became part of the bank, we had a much deeper insight into where the challenges and opportunities were.”

Trabian repurchased MVB’s shares on Jan. 30 of this year.