A financial technology company with ties to VyStar Credit Union is moving its headquarters to Jacksonville, with plans to site 600 workers downtown.
Nymbus, which creates software for banks and credit unions, will receive $4.5 million in city and state grants to incentivize the move, which is already underway.
The tech company will locate inside VyStar's downtown campus, with plans to lease about 4,000 square feet. The credit union is a customer of Nymbus, using the company to replace the platform that customers, employees and vendors use to interface with the bank. That project is underway and should be completed in the coming months.
VyStar is also an investor, putting $20 million into Nymbus in April, one of a number of fintech investments the credit union has made recently.
The discussions about Nymbus moving from Miami Beach to Jacksonville began as part of the investment conversation.
"We started thinking about how do we go beyond just a financial investment — how do we create a true partnership," said Nymbus CEO Jeffery Kendall, "and that meant actually being in the same office together, being shoulder to shoulder and having those daily conversations. We love the fact that we're just an elevator ride away from some of our key products and capabilities that we're launching with VyStar."
Other investors in Nymbus include Financial Service Capital and Insight Partners.
The relocation is another sign of the area's growing fintech sector and will help propel the sector even higher, said Joel Swanson, VyStar's chief member experience officer.
"We want to be a San Francisco or a Boston," Swanson said, and for that the area needs an ecosystem of talent.
The incentives, which Nymbus received under the codename Project Endgame, include a Targeted Industry Grant from the city of up to $1.8 million based on $4,500 per job for 407 positions. The grant would be payable in $1,125 per-job increments over four years after the average wage and job creation is verified by the city of Jacksonville.
It will also receive a CareerSource Florida Quick Response Grant up to $4,000 per job for 673 positions, which totals $2.7 million. The differences in job numbers is because the city is not incentivizing 200 call center jobs.
In return for the incentives, the company agreed to make a capital investment of $6.4 million, which would include investment across real estate improvements, IT equipment, furniture and fixtures.
Nymbus has about 400 employees today, with 250 based in the U.S. The company describes itself as remote first, but Kendall said its workers want a "center of gravity, where they could come towards in terms of office space, to collaborate when needed, but then also be able to have flexibility in working when they wanted."
"This is an incredibly attractive community for people to move from in other parts of the country," the CEO said. "Given the pandemic and people's point of view that they can live anywhere they want, we believe that this is a great option."
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