In early 2025, nCino acquired Sandbox Banking for $52.5 million in cash, along with a potential $10 million earnout based on performance milestones. The deal gives nCino access to Sandbox's integration platform, which helps banks and credit unions connect their core systems to modern fintech products more efficiently. This kind of infrastructure is increasingly valuable in M&A as financial institutions look to streamline workflows, reduce vendor friction, and bring solutions to market faster.
Why the nCino-Sandbox Banking fintech M&A deal matters
This deal shows where value is shifting in financial services. Banks and credit unions want faster ways to connect their existing systems to new fintech tools. Sandbox offers a low-code platform designed to streamline integrations, so banks can connect internal systems to outside products in less time and at lower cost. For buyers like nCino, infrastructure like this improves delivery speed, reduces churn risk, and expands product capabilities.
Who is Sandbox Banking?
Sandbox Banking is a fintech infrastructure company founded in 2015 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The team built Glyue, a low-code integration platform that helps banks and credit unions connect their core systems to third-party fintech products. Glyue supports integrations across more than 14 core banking systems and over 50 fintech solutions. At the time of the acquisition, Sandbox served over 75 financial institutions, including community banks, credit unions, and regional players.
Inside the fintech M&A deal: terms and timeline
nCino announced its acquisition of Sandbox Banking on February 11, 2025. The deal included $52.5 million in cash, along with a potential earn-out of up to $10 million based on financial and product milestones. Through this transaction, nCino adds Sandbox's Glyue platform, which allows financial institutions to connect core systems to fintech solutions using prebuilt adapters, low-code automation, and configurable logic.
The strategic value for nCino
Adding Glyue gives nCino a new layer of flexibility in how it delivers integration capabilities. The platform simplifies how banks connect legacy core systems to external fintech products, removing many of the manual steps typically required to sync systems and allowing for faster, more consistent rollouts. Instead of leaning on third-party connectors, the company now owns a toolset that can handle these connections directly.
Why fintech M&A deals are heating up
Activity continues to accelerate, especially around companies offering core infrastructure, compliance automation, and integration platforms. Buyers are focused on practical tools that solve high-friction problems. Strategic acquirers are watching how regulatory changes, rising customer expectations, and evolving tech stacks are pressuring legacy players, and many are choosing to acquire proven platforms rather than build in-house.
What's next for nCino and Sandbox Banking?
Glyue will become a key component of nCino's integration capabilities, expected to help financial institutions connect to fintech applications more efficiently and reduce development timelines. Current Sandbox clients will continue to access the tools they rely on, now backed by nCino's broader infrastructure.
Explore strategic fintech M&A opportunities with 733Park
At 733Park, we work with founders and investors in fintech, payments, SaaS, and AI to identify and execute high-impact opportunities, bringing over 25 years of transaction experience and more than $10 billion in completed deals. Contact us at [email protected] or (617) 564-0404 to discuss your options.
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