Financial Plus Credit Union, Ascentra Credit Union, Collins Community Credit Union and Serve Credit Union all were part of the latest round of funding of LenderClose.
Several community lenders, including Financial Plus Credit Union, have closed mortgage loans using the LenderClose remote online notarization solution.
“There have been few moments in time more profound than the one our industry is experiencing right now,” Financial Plus CEO Dave Cale said in a release. “We have a choice. We can lay low and wait for the pandemic and its economic consequences to subside. Or, we can mobilize everything that’s good about community financial services and ignite that spirit to effect change.
“At Financial Plus Credit Union, we are making the strategic decision to lean into the initiatives that will help us take care of our members for the long term,” Cale said. “Investing in and engaging with fintech partners like LenderClose is one of several ways we plan to continue offering our members exceptional service.”
Nick Evens, president of The Veridian Group and a LenderClose board member, said now is the time for credit unions to be bold with their investment strategies.
“Credit unions live at the convergence of soundness and innovation,” Evens said. “They may not have the R&D budgets of megabanks and big tech, but they have the innate drive to improve lives, and they certainly have the entrepreneurial spirit. With credit union backing and scale, fintechs and other startups can effectively become the vehicle for getting people-centric banking innovation into the hands of more members, faster.”
LenderClose CEO Omar Jordan said the eight-figure Series B funding round began as an exclusive opportunity for the company’s initial investors, but expanded in reaction to growing excitement about the technology’s ability to increase speed and efficiency for community lenders.
“Our vision for using technology to keep lending local is striking a chord within the community lender ecosystem,” Jordan said. “Especially now, as credit unions and community banks can so acutely feel the need for their human-centric services, they are compelled to provide fast, efficient, superior answers to their neighbors’ biggest problems and opportunities. Our platform gives them exactly that – a simple, elegant way to serve more members, better and faster.”