Varo Bank, the first fintech to secure a national bank charter, today announced a $510 million oversubscribed funding round, a new raise that more than doubles the company’s previous funding, bringing total funding for the San Francisco, Calif.-based mobile bank to $992.4 million.

The bank’s total valuation now stands at $2.5 billion, Alex Woie, head of strategic communications at Varo, told Bank Automation News. Investors were attracted to Varo Bank’s series E round because it “represents the future of banking,” Woie said. To date, the bank has 4 million customers.

“Investors recognize the unique potential for a company like Varo to disrupt the banking market and lead the way for customer-centric innovation,” Woie told BAN.

Technology plays a key role in that disruption, he added, pointing to Varo’s national bank charter, which it secured July 31, 2020, and a “cutting-edge technology stack” that allows the bank to operate on a lower-cost business model, with “greater revenue diversification” and an “ability to innovate across a broad set of products,” Woie added.

The bank plans to use the funding to build out its product roadmap, including credit and lending products, payments, investments and crypto, Woie said. Automation, along with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will support the planned platform capability upgrades, he added.

“We’re also continuing to invest in our platform capabilities — including personalization, credit underwriting, fraud detection and prevention — each of these will be supported by the latest AI/ML and automation technologies,” Woie said.

One example of how the bank intends to leverage automation was its recent partnership with Quantifind to help Varo automate financial risk screening and investigations, Woie said.

The bank will also continue to grow its technology teams at hubs in San Francisco, Salt Lake City and Charlotte, N.C.

While Varo has no immediate plans to go public, it does plan to do so “in a year or two as the business continues to grow and mature,” Woie said.

New investor Lone Pine Capital led the recent funding round, joined by dozens of additional new investors, including Declaration Partners, Eldridge, Marshall Wace, Berkshire Partners/Stockbridge, and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.