Backbase was founded in 2003 in Amsterdam by Jouk Pleiter and Gerbert Kaandorp.

The company originally produced an AJAX framework, based on HTML, JavaScript and CSS.

This eventually took the form of the Backbase Customer Experience Portal[1] Backbase originally sold to a wide range of internet-facing businesses, including financial services, but in 2013, Pleiter pivoted the company to focus solely on financial services.

[2] In 2017, Pleiter's work at Backbase was recognized with the LOEY Award, the prize for the best online entrepreneur in the Netherlands.

In 2021, Backbase announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft,[5] which sees Backbase's Engagement Banking Platform serving in the engagement layer within Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services.