Whereas working at fintech lending platform Stilt, Jessica Zhang and Alex Hegevall Clarke noticed how costly and time-consuming it was for the credit score business to outfit their in-house tech stacks to be able to adhere to stringent federal and state rules. So that they determined to construct one thing that might be simpler.
“Businesses, whether a venture-backed startup or even brick-and-mortar lenders, really struggle to launch products quickly and compliantly because of how fragmented existing solutions are and the high compliance hurdles,” Zhang informed TechCrunch. “Pier is building ‘Stripe for credit,’ which is a way for companies to automate their own credit products.”
Right here’s the way it works: Builders add Pier’s APIs with a number of traces of codes, saving months of labor and hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, Zhang mentioned. Pier’s expertise then manages the credit score lifecycle from end-to-end, together with origination, underwriting, compliance and servicing.
Different firms have additionally claimed to be “Stripe for credit,” for instance, Setpoint, a startup that developed software program for quicker mortgage transactions. Even Stripe itself created new credit score merchandise for companies about six months in the past.
Nonetheless, Pier, which launched in 2023, is extra of an ongoing, dynamic course of that evolves all through every mortgage’s lifecycle, not like funds and banking, Zhang mentioned. Different options on the market tackle particular parts of the lifecycle, like underwriting or Know Your Buyer, whereas Pier gives a extra complete providing.
Pier is a SaaS mannequin and expenses a month-to-month payment that features a month-to-month minimal plus a utilization payment primarily based on mortgage quantity, use case and on the variety of inquiries. A few of these use circumstances embody credit score builders, purchase now, pay later for weddings and clear power, wage advance loans, service provider advance and portfolio traces of credit score.
Zhang was mum on the variety of customers and income development, however did say the corporate has various years of runway.
The corporate not too long ago secured $2.4 million in seed funding. Traders within the spherical embody Y Combinator, Liquid 2 Ventures, ACME, Horizon Ventures and a gaggle of angel traders, together with Brian Neer of Morgan Stanley; Seth Weinstein (former CEO of Morgan Stanley Fund Companies) and YC companion Divya Bhat.
Zhang plans to speculate the brand new capital into product growth and constructing a staff.
