Tech People in the Know: Nuuvia’s Marcell King

IThe Portland, Ore.-based fintech, formerly Incent, bills itself as delivering a youth engagement experience that builds healthy money habits early and keeps deposits in-house so community banks and credit unions survive today and thrive tomorrow.

By W.B. King

As a member of the gifted and talented class, Marcell King, then in seventh grade, was given access to an Apple 2C computer. In short order he began creating—trying to devise the types of video games he loved to play. “I coded and developed a boxing game. It was very rudimentary, but it was cool to have built a video game,” King told Finopotamus.

Throughout high school, he “tinkered with electronics” and believed he was on a path to becoming an electrical engineer. “Unfortunately, that dream died when I failed a Calculus 205 class, so I decided to pursue a business degree in marketing, primarily because I was fairly entrepreneurial, and I wanted to gain knowledge to help me down the road in business.”

Marcell King

Upon graduating from Boise State University with degrees in marketing, finance and banking, King began working with electronic banking and cash management products and services designed for financial institutions (FIs).

“In 1994, my junior year in college, I began my fintech career as marketing intern for a company that built ACH origination and cash management software for community banks,” he shared. “It was my responsibility to follow-up on cold leads, write copy for product worksheets, and create post card mailers to generate awareness of our company and its software products.”

Satisfy the End User

King’s career path had pitstops at Open Solutions, where he spent six years as a vice president of sales, as well as a three-year stint at Amazon serving as a senior manager of global gift card channels. He would also spend nearly nine years as chief innovation officer at Payveris, a next generation provider of digital payment solutions for financial institutions. In April 2025, he assumed his current position as president and COO of Nuuvia, which has nearly 50 FI clients, including credit unions.

“Although the development tools have changed over the years, the good technology companies always focus on solving problems for their customers,” King responded when Finopotamus asked what changes he has seen in tech management over the last 25-plus years. “The recipe is very simple: Start with the customer/end-user in mind and work your way backwards. If you satisfy the end-user, you satisfy the bank or credit union, you satisfy your employees, and you ultimately satisfy your investors and/or share shareholders.” Companies that build software without understanding the problem they are trying to solve, he added, don’t last long.   

With time comes perspective, King explained, noting that earlier in his career he was a self-described "micro manager." One day, something clicked and he began seeing business operations differently.

“During the time I worked at Amazon, I learned how to hire quality, high-performing people, collaborate on vision, strategy, and goals, and then let them run. My goal as a manager is to help my team stretch themselves while enabling them to achieve their goals by unblocking the hurdles they may be facing,” he shared, noting that Nuuvia has approximately 25 employees. “Those hurdles could be misalignments on goals and expected culture, resource blockers (human and tech), interdepartmental friction, or knowledge.”

With the understanding that the credit unions/fintech industry is niche, King said he offers three pieces of advice for business technologists new to the space:

1. Make sure you are solving a customer problem.

2. Deliver what you say you are going to deliver.

3. Do not burn bridges along the way.

“This industry is very small, and you never know who you might be reporting to in the future, manager or board members,” he added.

Personalized Digital Solutions

King said he has been fortunate to have always worked with companies that were on the leading edge of technology. Nuuvia’s focus on the tween and teen market, he noted, builds on his tradition of creating in innovative spaces.

“With an aging population of customers and members (average age of 55), banks and credit unions must have digital solutions that are personalized to attract the next generation of account holders,” he explained. “Nuuvia is focusing our user experience to be relevant with teens and tweens as these kids will become future spenders, savers, and borrowers.

King continued: “Nuuvia is giving FI’s the ability to compete more effectively with the B2C fintechs who are disintermediating them with personalized digital banking experiences, ultimately enabling the FI to acquire, retain, and grow account holders, deposits, non-interest income, and relationships.”

True Partnership

Among the characteristics King enjoys about the credit union industry is its openness to collaboration. “They are much less competitive amongst their peers, and they share best practices with each other.” This cooperative spirit, he added, is also important when working with fintechs. Since most credit unions don’t have software developers in-house, he said that they need partners who can build the products that solve their problems.

“When I was at Payveris, we created the first true credit union/fintech partnership by creating a vehicle that allowed credit unions to invest in Payveris, sit on our board, guide us with product direction, and help us grow our customer base,” he told Finopotamus. “It was 100% symbiotic, they helped us build the best solution in the industry, we helped them solve problems focused on payments and money movement, and they were able to give their members a better experience. I call that a win-win-win.”