Ken LaRoe, Founder & CEO, Climate First Bancorp
Climate First Bank has great ambitions for the next two years. “Everything is on the table – new growth, mergers and acquisitions, and possibly going public,” Ken LaRoe, the bank’s founder and CEO, told Invest:.
What have been the standout achievements for Climate First Bank in the Tampa Bay market?
We founded and headquartered the bank here, so Tampa is critical to our culture, community and growth. I think we’re probably over $250 million in loans and deposits just in the Tampa MSA or the Bay Area MSA.
But honestly, the bank’s growth has been so rapid that it is hard to separate it into just markets. We truly have a national presence, with customers in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and three countries. We have more than a billion in assets in total, which makes us the fastest-growing new bank in America since 2009.
And because we are digital forward, customers find us. For example, we don’t advertise in Alaska, but we have customers in Anchorage who found us and opened their accounts with us.
As the only climate-focused bank in the world and also a legal benefits corporation, how does this influence customer acquisition?
Our mission to fight climate change is integral to our growth. Customers want to know that their bank shares their values. That’s why, to date, we have been able to finance more than a quarter of a billion dollars in solar deals — both residential and commercial. There are no community banks in the country that are close to that level. That’s exciting because we know exactly what the impact is. We know exactly how many tons of carbon were taken out of the atmosphere because of the size of the arrays that we do. What’s more, it’s a great deal for customers. We believe in ethical solar financing. That means, no dealer fees — never — and we never play the fraudulent games that other fintechs play.
How is the bank performing in terms of customers and investors?
The customer draw is huge, as you can imagine. Some customers love that we share their commitment to fight climate change. Others are attracted to our easy-to-use platform. And others just like our great rates.
In terms of investors, at least 30 percent of our investors are here because they share our commitment to ethical banking. We’re the only bank in Florida that’s a public benefit corporation. We’re the only bank in Florida that’s a Certified B Corp.
What makes Tampa Bay an ideal location for business expansions and reallocations, and how has this contributed to the overall growth of the bank?
There are a lot of reasons. Some of it is just the huge influx of people into Florida because there is an incredible talent pool. Tampa, specifically, also has strong tech traction. That’s been a real benefit.
I’m a huge fan of the whole region because of what it offers, not the least of which are the beaches and the natural environment. It’s just a dynamic place with a lot of talent.
How are you incorporating artificial intelligence, and digital transformation to improve operational efficiencies and customer experience?
It’s a lot easier for us than it is for an established community bank because we started that way; we started paperless. We will provide a customer with a paper statement if they need it, but we charge them $5 a month.
As far as AI, we use it every day. I use it every day. We have two engineers on staff who are AI specialists. They are two young men from UCF who developed an AI business while they were in college. We bought the business from them, and then they joined us as engineers. We’re actively developing proprietary AI agents now and integrating them across the organization.
As far as the big picture, you may have run into the fact that community banks are beholden to the core processing system that they can buy. If the core processing system doesn’t do any of this cool stuff, you’re stuck. You need to go get another vendor at a huge cost, and maybe that vendor can do the middleware, maybe talk to the core. We fought that for a year and said, the heck with this, we’re just going to bring on our own engineers and write our own code.
What are your top priorities for the next two to three years?
We have a three-year business plan and a three-year budget, of course. Today, we have grown to more than a billion dollars in total assets. That’s a big deal – both for the Tampa Bay region and community banks. We’re budgeted to reach approximately $2.4 billion at the end of 2027. And from there, we are looking at all options: from new markets and partnerships to mergers and acquisitions, and even going public.
