Fuse Launches $5M Rescue Fund for Credit Unions

Fuse has launched a $5 million Rescue Fund initiative designed to help credit unions escape long-term contracts with legacy technology vendors.

“In 2023, after three years of building an automotive lending startup, Fuse co-founders Andres Klaric and Marc Escapa realized that LLMs could modernize something even more significant: the loan origination system (LOS), which is the backbone of the lending industry”

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The program offers the first 50 qualifying credit unions free use of the Fuse platform until their existing loan origination system (LOS) contracts expire.

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This is followed by a subscription with flat annual pricing and no implementation fees or hidden costs.

Credit unions simply need to bring their existing contracts to Fuse, which will cover the transition costs.

This initiative addresses a critical gap between what credit union members expect and what legacy systems can deliver.

Legacy systems offer hidden fees, glacial change cycles, restricted data access, and zero path to automation.

The credit union industry faces significant challenges due to legacy technology constraints.

Fintech lenders have captured market share while credit union numbers decline.

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Fintech lenders have surged from 5 percent to nearly 40 percent of loan market share in just five years.

The number of federally insured credit unions has declined more than 30 percent in the last decade.

This 'SaaS Squeeze' has been created by private-equity-owned vendors.

These vendors charge six-figure implementation fees and five-figure tolls for basic configuration changes.

They also restrict data access to force renewals.

The era of the change order is dead, as legacy SaaS vendors built their businesses on friction.

Fuse positions itself as an AI-native solution that can be adopted relatively quickly.

“In 2023, after three years of building an automotive lending startup, Fuse co-founders Andres Klaric and Marc Escapa realized that LLMs could modernize something even more significant: the loan origination system (LOS), which is the backbone of the lending industry”

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The company aims to displace legacy platforms like nCino and MeridianLink.

Competitors in the AI-infused LOS space include Casca and Glide.

Nikhil Basu Trivedi from Footwork backed Fuse.

He emphasizes the scale of the opportunity with over 4,000 credit unions in the US.

Their technology is long overdue for overhaul.

Despite challenges of swapping LOS systems, which has traditionally been difficult.

Fuse promises a more modern approach to help credit unions compete.

Klaric emphasizes that credit unions have foundational elements needed to succeed.

They possess local presence, local focus, great member experience, and good branch locations.

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Yet they lack the right technological tools to compete effectively.

The mission extends beyond technology replacement.

It's about helping credit unions serve the American middle class.

By reducing costs and enabling competition with fintech lenders.

Credit unions aren't losing market share due to lack of will.

They're fighting a modern war with tools from the 1990s.