Backbase
ABN Amro’s digital intrapreneur joins Backbase to lead banking- as-a-platform business
After taking Tikkie to half the Dutch population, Roland Booijen joins Backbase to develop ecosystems and partnerships
Backbase, the Engagement Banking category leader, announced the arrival of Roland Booijen, adding seasoned talent at a time of major growth in the business. Booijen, former Digital Channels & Innovation Director of ABN AMRO, will build out Backbase’s banking-as-a-platform offering. He also successfully launched the Tikkie peer-to-peer payments app, which currently boasts over 7 million Dutch users.
Backbase is in the middle of significant recent growth, surpassing 150 clients and $100 million in ARR in 2021. Leading the paradigm shift to engagement banking – by helping banks move from a channel-first to a customer-first approach – has driven significant growth, creating demand for top technology and sales leadership. With ambitions to create banking apps that serve more than 10% of the world population, CEO and founder Jouk Pleiter is bolstering the leadership team to accelerate growth.
Booijen was most recently the Digital Channels & Innovation Director for ABN AMRO. With his teams, he helped accelerate ABN AMRO’s digital transformation with increased autonomy and insight for clients. During his tenure there, he launched the Tikkie payments app which is used by 7 million, or roughly half of all Dutch adults. In addition to Tikkie, Roland also founded the bank’s personal financial management app, Grip. As the largest Dutch PFM app, Grip was also the first to open itself for other banking clients, working on PSD2.
The success of ABN AMRO’s mobile channels in its digital transformation and launching ventures as Tikkie and Grip as an intrapreneur shows the vision and execution Roland can bring to Backbase. Our Engagement Banking Platform is the clear category leader, and now we’re going to double down on building our ecosystem of fintech and technology partners. The ecosystem is core to our vision of enabling customers to build a customer-first bank with a full suite of capabilities from day one.
Jouk Pleiter
CEO and Founder at Backbase
As General Manager, Ecosystems, Booijen will build out the banking-as-a-platform vision on top of the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform. His team will develop new value propositions and integrations with leading fintechs and Backbase’s lean core partners that combine to create value for new and existing clients.
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Backbase is on a mission to put bankers back in the driver’s seat — fully equipped to lead the AI revolution and unlock remarkable growth and efficiency. At the heart of this mission is the world’s first AI-powered Banking Platform, unifying all servicing and sales journeys into an integrated suite. With Backbase, banks modernize their operations across every line of business — from Retail and SME to Commercial, Private Banking, and Wealth Management.
Recognized as a category leader by Forrester, Gartner, Celent, and IDC, Backbase powers the digital and AI transformations of over 150 financial institutions worldwide. See some of their stories here.
Founded in 2003 in Amsterdam, Backbase is a global private fintech company with regional headquarters in Atlanta and Singapore, and offices across London, Sydney, Toronto, Dubai, Kraków, Cardiff, Hyderabad, and Mexico City.
