Eastern Bank announced Monday that it has forged a partnership with former executives of PerkStreet Financial, a once-prospering Boston online banking startup that shut down in August 2013. The aim is to fuel a new initiative called Eastern Labs, which will be focused on using the company’s digital and data assets to build new financial service technologies both within and outside of Eastern Bank.
PerkStreet has a rocky history. The company, which offered unlimited two-percent cash back on debit purchases, once processed around $1 billion in annual volume through its banking platform. Last August, however, PerkStreet’s Co-founder and CEO Dan O’Malley announced that PerkStreet would halt operations in late September after failing to raise additional capital. Since its founding in 2008, PerkStreet raised around $16 million from Highland Capital Partners and Globespan Capital Partners, among others.
O’Malley is one of three former PerkStreet leaders that will join Eastern Labs. The former chief executive, who began his career at Capital One, where he founded the company’s payments division, will head up Eastern Labs, and assume the role of executive vice president and chief digital officer at Eastern.
John Magee, the ex-vice president of analytics at PerkStreet, will become the senior vice president and chief data scientist of Eastern’s new digital branch. Lastly, PerkStreet’s former CFO Lauren Stock will serve as the senior vice president of emerging technologies.
The trio of PerkStreet alums will be responsible for managing Eastern Labs, as well as the roughly 80 Eastern Bank employees that have been shifted to the initiative’s team to bolster the company’s efforts in the space.
Image via LinkedIn/Eastern Labs
