About Us2024-12-17T08:41:13-08:00

About Tyfone

Tyfone’s Mission

Build the best digital banking platform.

Innovate to bring delightful experiences.

Cultivate meaningful relationships.

The Tyfone Story

Founded in 2004 by Siva Narendra, Prabhakar Tadepalli and Tom Spitzer, under the premise “We believe in the power of the digitally connected world, but one needs digital trust for the connected world to become increasingly valuable.”

We first applied this concept to the world of mobile banking transactions when smartphones were anticipated to gain traction.

Our early work was done with the likes of Google, First Data, and the Department of Defense, focused on conveniently securing the identity of a digital user to enable transactions such as mobile payments.

We had recognized our calling to secure online banking for the everyday consumer. Working alongside a handful of innovative credit unions (including two $10B in assets) tyfone launched our mobile banking platform. Leveraging our knowledge of convenience and user experience coupled with strong security, we relied on the expertise of our partners to bring our first iteration of mobile banking to life.

A decade later, we threw the proverbial hand grenade at our “mobile only “solution and rebuilt our platform from scratch to be a modern, scalable, omnichannel solution that provides online banking services on any device, for both our retail banking customers and business banking clients.

The new platform considers that user experience is critical for consumers as well as employees of our customers. Our solution envisions innovation in digital services as consumer digital interactions evolve (AI, augmented reality, virtual branches).

Tyfone’s founding team members are inventors with more than 130 patents including several in financial services, that by themselves have attracted tens of million dollars in investments.

Everyone builds features, not everyone builds relationships. We Build Both.

At the heart of tyfone lies the unshakable belief in community-minded collaboration, working with our customers as partners. We deliver fintech level innovation and believe digital banking must advance at the pace of digital, not at the pace of banking.

We stay true to our roots by growing judiciously, focusing on scaling our business while servicing our customers with the high-touch collaborative relationship that their retail and business banking customers expect.

Our motto is “everyone builds features, not everyone builds relationships.” These relationships guide our product features and our roadmaps to ensure we bring maximum gains to our customers with the best experience for theirs.

People helping people

Responsible growth

Connecting people

Value driven relationships

Flawless execution

Sustainable innovation

Tyfone’s Leadership Team

Dr. Siva Narendra
Co-Founder, CEO

Prabhakar Tadepalli
Co-Founder, President & COO

Nizar Jamal
CTO

John-Ashley Paul
EVP Growth

Josh DeTar
EVP Evangelism

Lakshman Prabu
EVP Engineering

Smriti Goel
CPO

Chirag Patel
SVP Product Management

Srividya Balaji
SVP Client Success

Amy Dormann
SVP Finance

Marcell King
General Manager, Tyfone CUSO

Keith Riddle
General Manager, Payfinia CUSO

Tyfone’s Board of Directors

Bruce Willison
Chairman

Dr. Siva Narendra

Tim Greenfield

Santo Cannone

Tom Shen

Laurent Desmangles

Learn More About Tyfone

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Download the Pamphlet: The Benefits of FedNow Service for Community Banks and Credit Unions

Download the Pamphlet: Instant Payment Xchange™

Download the Pamphlet: Intelligent Banking Starts With Penni AI

Download the Pamphlet: nFinia Retail Banking

Download the Pamphlet: 3rd Party Partner Integrations

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Chirag Patel, SVP Product Management

Chirag Patel is the Senior Vice President of Product Management, bringing over 20 years of experience in Product Management, Payments and Banking, and digital transformation across diverse domains and markets. He is an accomplished leader recognized for his hands-on approach, leading by example, and demonstrating excellence in guiding large, cross-functional, and offshore teams while overseeing end-to-end product development.

In his current role, Chirag oversees developing and communicating a cohesive product strategy that aligns with the company’s overarching goals and vision. He mentors product team members and collaborates with various departments to bring products to market. Chirag has implemented a practice within the product team to actively collect customer feedback, conduct user research, and leverage data-driven insights to make informed decisions that enhance product offerings and prioritize features based on customer needs. He is also responsible for managing the product development budget and ensuring effective and efficient resource allocation.

Driven by a passion for innovation and digital transformation, Chirag is dedicated to delivering exceptional customer experiences and fostering a customer-centric culture and servant leadership to drive organizational success. Before joining Tyfone, he held leadership positions at Paymentus, Payveris, and Redbox.

Chirag holds a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Lakshman Prabu, EVP Engineering

Prabu currently serves as the EVP of Engineering at Tyfone, where he combines his extensive technological expertise and entrepreneurial acumen with over three decades of experience in the credit union industry.

Prior to his role at Tyfone, Prabu assumed the position of Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at CUBUS Solutions, where he played a pivotal role in the development of cutting-edge digital banking solutions.

Preceding his tenure at CUBUS Solutions, Prabu held the role of Senior Development Manager at Harland Financial Solutions. In this capacity, he was responsible for the architectural design and development of their ULTRADATA core Financial Services Platform (FSP), catering to credit union staff. His accomplishments also included spearheading the creation of the Ultra-Access digital banking system, as well as the development of the Open-Path Application-Exchange and FSP-Exchange vendor API interfaces.

Prabu’s academic background is rooted in Computer Science, with a Bachelor of Science degree earned at the Regional Engineering College under Madras University in India.

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Keith Riddle, General Manager, Payfinia CUSO

As General Manager for the Payfinia CUSO, Keith is responsible for organizational strategy and business development activities, which include establishing direct relationships with credit unions (and community financial institutions) as well as partnerships with digital service providers and Fintechs. Payfinia’s marquee payment solution is the Instant Payment Xchange (IPX) platform. IPX supports a full range of payment services including real-time connectivity to the FedNow Service and the RTP Network, an open API framework to extend instant payment messages to ecosystem partners, a complete suite of layered fraud controls and third-party service integrations, and access to the complete portfolio of network participation profiles.

Keith has more than 35 years of experience in the financial services industry and possesses in-depth knowledge of digital platforms, Fintech solutions, payment networks and integration frameworks. Prior to joining Tyfone, Keith was CEO of the Americas for BankiFi Technology and was responsible for BankiFi’s small business embedded banking solution strategy and distribution within North America. Keith also served as CEO of Sherpa Technologies, a credit union services organization (CUSO) owned by Corporate One, which was dedicated to leading credit unions through the complexities of digital transformation, Fintech evaluation and enablement, and payment modernization initiatives. During Keith’s tenure, he led the instant payments strategy resulting in Sherpa being the first CUSO in the US to connect to the RTP Network. Keith also led Sherpa’s Fintech evaluation and partnership strategy, resulting in impactful vetted Fintech partners credit unions could access for digital onboarding, account switching, and ID verification services.

Keith has served on industry committees with The Clearing House (TCH) focused on real-time payment enablement, including nominations from industry peers to become the Chairman of the RTP Advisory Committee and a voting member of the RTP Business Committee. Keith also represents Payfinia within the Faster Payments Council (FPC), serving as the Chair of the QR Code Interface Workgroup and an active member of the Directory Model Services Workgroup.

Over the course of his extensive Fintech career, Keith has also held executive business development, innovation, and product management roles with Corporate One FCU, D+H, Online Resources Corporation, CheckFree Corporation, and Electronic Payment Services/Concord EFS.

Keith holds a B.A in Business Administration from Otterbein University and resides with his family in Columbus, OH.

Srividya Balaji, SVP Client Success

Srividya Balaji, or Sri as she’s affectionately known, is a seasoned leader with a proven track record in driving client success. Currently serving as the Senior Vice President of Client Success at Tyfone, Sri oversees the Customer Support, Delivery, and Customer Success teams, ensuring exceptional client experiences and maximizing the value of Tyfone’s solutions.

With over three decades of experience in the software, fintech, cybersecurity, credit unions, and financial services industries, Sri brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her role. Prior to joining Tyfone, she held leadership positions at Patelco Credit Union, Wrike, First Tech Federal Credit Union, Hewlett-Packard, and Commerce One. Throughout her career, Sri has been at the forefront of transformative technology initiatives, introducing innovative digital solutions to clients across various industries.

Sri’s deep passion for credit unions, combined with her strong technical background, makes her a valuable asset to Tyfone. Her ability to bridge the gap between technology and client needs is instrumental in driving the company’s success.

Amy Dormann, SVP Finance

Amy is a seasoned Corporate Finance Executive with extensive experience across technology, travel, subscription services, and manufacturing sectors. Known for her strategic planning and change management, she has a proven track record of creating strong partnerships with the Sales, Marketing and Technology teams to deliver strategic plans and long range goals. Amy has a wealth of experience in financial governance, capital/cash management and oversight, P&L governance, and startup finance for SaaS companies, having led finance functions at companies like Tyfone Inc. and Travel + Leisure. She is recognized for her ability to build strong financial teams and streamline processes, holding an MBA in Organizational Change Leadership.

John-Ashley Paul, EVP Growth

John-Ashley Paul is Executive Vice President of Growth at Tyfone. John-Ashley oversees tyfone’s sales, marketing, product strategy and execution, partnership and account management groups. Prior to joining Tyfone, he was co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Cubus Solutions (merged with Tyfone in April 2023) where he led the company through 20+ years of product innovation, continuous revenue growth and increasing customer engagement.

While he was at Cubus, John Ashley developed Cubus One, a leading edge digital banking platform and credit union industry-firsts digital solutions such as e-alerts, e-statements & skip-a-pay. While at Ultradata (now a part of Finastra) John-Ashley built Ultra-Access, one of the first digital banking applications for credit unions. John-Ashley has over 25 years of executive management, sales and marketing, and product management experience in credit-union focused digital banking companies.

John-Ashley has a BS in Electrical Engineering form the College of Engineering Pune, an MS in Computer Engineering from Villanova University, and an MBA in Marketing from St. Mary’s College of California.

Smriti Goel, Chief People Officer

As Tyfone’s Chief People Officer, Smriti plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s culture and fostering an inclusive, high-performing workplace. With over two decades of experience in human resources and people management, Smriti is an expert in driving talent strategies that align with business objectives and accelerate organizational growth.

Prior to joining Tyfone, Smriti held senior HR leadership positions at leading global companies. She has served as Head of HR at Netskope India, led HR operations for over 4,500 employees at Wipro, and held senior roles at Intel, Nokia, and Samsung. Smriti brings international experience, having worked in global teams including an assignment at China, and a consultative, community-driven approach to HR.

A strong advocate for the early adoption of automation in HR practices, she is passionate about empowering leaders and driving innovation across organizations.
Academically, she holds degrees in Economics and Law, and is a management graduate from Symbiosis college, India and her skills in enabling scale, expansion strategies and organisation deisgn make her a key driver of Tyfone’s strategic growth.

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Download the Pamphlet: Skip-A-Pay

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Dr. Siva Narendra, CEO/Co-founder

Dr. Siva Narendra is CEO of Tyfone, Inc., a digital banking and digital payments technology company in Portland, Oregon, he co-founded in 2004. Dr. Narendra has served as CEO since 2011.

Dr. Narendra is an inventor in 100s of patents. Inventions he patented have led to the launch of Tozny, a digital security company and iCashe, a digital payment fintech. Dr. Narendra was nominated to the National Medal of Technology and Innovation with recommendations from Oregon’s Attorney General and General (Retd.) David Petraeus. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Dr. Narendra was a Senior Staff Scientist at Intel’s Corporate Technology Group. Dr. Narendra is a published author and has more than 60 peer-reviewed papers. In addition to serving on the boards of tyfone and iCashe he co-founded, Dr. Narendra was a board member at OnPoint Community Credit Union from 2017 to 2020. He serves on the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines.

Dr. Narendra holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Prabhakar Tadepalli, Co-Founder, President & COO

Prabhakar Tadepalli is a proven leader with over 30 years of experience in building teams and organizations in the technology sector.  A recognized industry leader with demonstrated abilities in turning research ideas into viable, scalable products. A dynamic leader known for building strong organizational cultures with innovative, inclusive and successful teams.  A dynamic public speaker with a strong ability to convince markets to embrace new ideas.

He is the is co-founder, President and COO of Tyfone, Inc. Tyfone develops an Omnichannel digital banking solution that empowers credit unions and community banks with a single-codebase multi-tenanted platform that is scalable, customizable, quick to deploy, and vendor agnostic. He is responsible for all operational elements at Tyfone and for developing strategic plans of the company.

Previously, he was Founder, CEO of Finatus, Inc, a venture-backed, web-application outsourcing company and was responsible for all the strategic and business management aspects of the company. Prior to founding the company, he was responsible for Strategic Planning at Intel Online Services, and also was part of the Intel’s Reseller Products Division, SMB Business Development team.

Prabhakar received his MBA from the University of Chicago, an MS in Engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas and a BE from Bharathiyar University in India. Prabhakar is located in Bangalore, India.

Other Accomplishments: 

  • Holder of 100 plus issued patents 
  • Serve on the Board of Directors of Baghirathi Transport. 
  • Appointed to the current Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education, Expert Committee for Private Universities by the Chief Minister. 
  • Serve as an Advisory Board member for Tuebora, Inc., an Identity and access management company. 
  • Advisor to multiple start-up companies. 
  • Active member of the Alumni Admissions Process for the University of Chicago – Booth School of Business
  • Organize a Charity Golf Tournament once a year to raise money for a disabled girl children’s organization.
  • Work with the local panchayat leaders on causes that affect the community – garbage collection & recycling, street lighting, road improvements and lake preservation.

Nizar Jamal, CTO

Nizar is responsible for technology direction and roadmap of Tyfone and contributes to strategic planning, sales, engineering process and operational execution of the company. Nizar is a technologist and entrepreneur with 30+ years of diverse experience in the Software, Security, Telecommunications, Marketing, Publishing, Legal and Financial services industries in US, India and Europe

Previously, Nizar was a CTO at Maxval Group, a product and services organization providing intellectual property management solutions using Salesforce. Nizar was a Managing Director at UBS, responsible for implementing shared mobile and social platforms across UBS. Prior to UBS, he co-founded Impelsys where he conceptualized a cloud-based software as a services platform and transformed the company from a service organization to a software as a service, products and services organization. Nizar has held progressively responsible positions in technology startups prior to Impelsys.

Nizar received an MS in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin and a BE in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Annamalai University in India.

Bruce Willison, Chairman

Bruce G. Willison is Dean Emeritus of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, having retired from the faculty in 2012. His appointment in 1999 came after a distinguished 26-year career in the banking industry, most recently serving as the president and chief operating officer of Home Savings of America and H.F. Ahmanson &amp; Co.<

Bruce has served on more than ten domestic and international public company boards. He currently is Chairman of Tyfone, Inc.; Chairman of SunAmerica’s Annuity Mutual Fund complex; and a director of iCashe. He is also Chairman of the Catholic Schools Collaborative and Vice Chairman of the LA Archdiocese’s Catholic Education Council.

Bruce’s leadership resume has been focused on building team-oriented organizations that are focused on creating durable partnerships with customers and communities.

Bruce and his wife, Gretchen, are engaged in a number of philanthropic organizations in Los Angeles. In their “spare time” they enjoy golf and tracking the exploits of their nine grandchildren!

Tom Shen

Tom T. Shen was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. In 1978, he was employed as a programmer trainee by Space Utilization Analysis, Incorporated. He then moved to Compata, a small consulting firm specializing in computer software services to the financial industry, in 1980.

Tom utilized the skills and contacts obtained through these early experiences to form Software Dynamics, Incorporated in 1982. As Chairman, CEO and President, he was responsible for guiding SDI’s technical staff, human resources, and administration. He collaborated on the direction and architecture of SDI’s very successful suite of products. By 2001, SDI was profitably delivering front office value—teller, platform, call center, and CRM—to over 1,200 financial institutions worldwide, from multi-billion multi-nationals to local community banks, generating revenues in excess of $20MM.

In 2001, Tom sold his West Hills, California company to S1 Corporation (NASDAQ: SONE), a leading global provider to more than 4,000 banks, credit unions, and insurance providers of enterprise software solutions. He served as General Manager with S1 for 2 years, successfully transitioning and growing S1’s branch business by over 50%, retiring in September 2003. During this retirement, Tom graduated Summa Cum Laude from The Master’s University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Christian Ministries (2004).

In late 2005, Tom joined Digital Insight (NASDAQ: DGIN)—a foremost Internet banking and payments provider of on-demand services—as Executive Vice President of Product, Engineering, and Operations. He oversaw operations that supported over 8MM consumer end-users and over 200K businesses. In February 2007, Intuit Corporation (NASDAQ: INTU) acquired Digital Insight. Tom stayed on to ensure the smooth transition, leaving in November 2007 to focus on board work and hightech start-ups.

In early 2010, sensing the need for better digital—led by mobile, in the community banking and credit union marketplace—Tom co-founded Malauzai Software, Inc., to build an industry-leading mobile first customer engagement platform. Malauzai delivered innovative Digital Banking SmartApps, easily managed and measured to over 400 financial institutions, serving over 3.2MM delighted consumer and business banking end-users. A key component of Malauzai’s rapid success in the marketplace was its ability to quickly innovate, construct industry firsts, and maintain long-lasting business partnerships. In mid-2018, Malauzai was acquired by Finastra, the third largest financial services technology company in the world, powered by Vista Equity. Tom served as an advisor to Finastra’s North American business through 2019.

Tom is active within his local church, where he contributes through teaching and mentoring. Tom is also involved with his high school’s— The King’s Academy—Capital Campaign to build a new STEM facility. Tom currently serves on the Boards of ZSuite Technologies (Arlington, MA), Shastic, Inc. (Berkeley, CA), CSI (Paducah, KY), Axiom Bank (Orlando, FL), and is Chair at BankiFi (Manchester, UK).

Steve Pawlowski

Steve Pawlowski is senior fellow at Intel responsible for design architecture at Intel Foundry Service. Prior to his current role Steve was corporate vice president of advanced computing solutions at Micron Technology where he was responsible for defining and developing innovative memory solutions for the enterprise and high-performance computing markets.

Prior to joining Micron in July 2014, Steve was a senior fellow and the chief technology officer for Intel’s Data Center and Connected Systems Group. His extensive industry experience includes 31 years at Intel, where he held several high-level positions and led teams in the design and development of next-generation system architectures and computing platforms.

Steve earned bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer systems engineering technology from the Oregon Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in computer science and engineering from the Oregon Graduate Institute. He also holds 58 patents.

Santo Cannone

Santo Cannone’s technology experience includes leadership positions in sales, product management and operations for businesses ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500. He currently serves as the Board Chair for the Tampa Bay Wave, an early stage technology accelerator, and on the boards of United Solutions Company and Simply Reliable.

Santo’s experience includes serving as a Chief Product Officer for Fiserv; Executive Vice President of Sales for Open Solutions; Chief Operating Officer at ConnectWise; and Senior Vice President of Real-Time Systems for FIS. Over the course of his career, his teams have delivered consumer and business-focused solutions to community banks and credit unions.

Santo holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Drexel University and an MBA from Penn State.

Home: Tampa FL

Hobbies: Travel, grandkids and suffering with his hometown Philadelphia sports teams.

Laurent Desmangles

Laurent Desmangles brings a global perspective, most notably his proven track record helping organizations chart growth strategy and execute large-scale transformation. His broad knowledge of the financial services industry, regional banking and the fintech sector will prove invaluable, as well as his expertise in corporate strategy, digital and analytics innovation. Desmangles has spent nearly 30 years advising banks as a consultant. Most recently, Desmangles retired from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as a managing director and senior partner in New York where he advised banks for BCG’s Retail Banking and Advanced Analytics practices. Desmangles also serves as a director on the board for $220b fifth third bank as well as serving on the board of Laurentian Bank of Canada.

Marcell King, CCO

Marcell King is Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Product Strategy at Tyfone. As Chief Commercial Officer, Marcell oversees tyfone’s product strategy and execution, sales, marketing, partnership and account management efforts. Prior to joining Tyfone, he was Chief Innovation Officer at Payveris (acquired by Paymentus in September 2021) where he led product innovation, sales, and marketing.

While he was at Payveris, Marcell developed the banking industry’s first direct to biller credit card and debit card bank bill pay. Marcell has nearly 30 years of leadership in product management, sales, marketing, client services and P&amp;L management in the digital banking and payments space. He has held key leadership roles at Paymentus, Open Solutions, Amazon.com, Incomm (formally Giftango) and Bankserv.

He is well-versed in digital banking, cash management, bill payments, peer to peer and account to account payments, mobile payments, gift cards, ACH origination, wire-transfer, and check/item processing technologies.

Tim Greenfield

Tim Greenfield is the Founder and Managing Partner of Demopolis Equity Partners. He is an established business builder with a track record of driving above market returns as an investment professional in the technology sector. He also has experience in successfully operating technology businesses in FinTech, and eCommerce. As well as broad experience in acquisitions, capital raising and strategy.

Prior to Demopolis, Tim led a very successful fund at Black Dragon Capital BDC, where his role spanned the full investment cycle, from sourcing and due diligence to post transaction integration, strategy and operational improvement through to a liquidity event. His areas of expertise include financial leadership, transaction and deal making, and capital raising, as well as strategic planning, commercial growth, operational efficiency and financial controls and governance. Under his leadership, Black Dragon consummated 10 transactions in a 2014 Vintage fund deploying $92mm in equity and generating returns of 35% IRR and average MOIC of 2.8X, including realized and unrealized deals. Under Mr. Greenfield’s leadership, the fund grew from inception to $400mm in Enterprise Value.

Previous experience includes serving as Chief Revenue Officer and President of Mobile Commerce and Payment Processing for Net Element helping build a leading mobile payment business in Eastern Europe and a growing payment processing business in the U.S.. Tim also helped take Net Element public in a successful SPAC transaction. Prior to Net Element he was President of Gold Mobile, a mobile software firm that offered healthcare applications, eCommerce and mobile payment solutions, for some of the largest brands in the world.

Additionally, Tim formed a successful Private Equity Search Fund where he acquired and successfully exited a distribution business, including consummating several add-on acquisitions as well as leading the turnaround of a distressed industrial company with aggregate returns of 18% IRR.

Tim began his post MBA career at McKinsey &amp; Company, Inc., where he consulted on a wide range of strategic and global projects for Fortune 100 clients across a wide range of industries including eCommerce, cable, retail, private equity, food and beverage, and the automotive industry. Highlights of his McKinsey experience include working on large transactions with leading PE Funds including due diligence, white space strategy and post-merger integration work. Tim started his career at General Electric where he completed the GE Management program and was among the first wave of Six Sigma black belts as well as working in various management and technical roles in GE Appliances, GE Transportation Systems and GE Power Systems.

Tim hold a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a Master of Manufacturing Engineering from the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. Tim graduated with honors from the University of Michigan and was one of 18 students selected as an Austin Scholar at Kellogg. He is a proud father of two boys and is a passionate cyclist, classic car enthusiast and collector of vintage audio equipment and vinyl records.

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