MSIV Invests in Santa Rosa’s Union Credit

Q&A with Co-Founders Dave Buerger & Barry Kirby

Wednesday, February 15, 2023 from Santa Rosa, CA

In 2021, Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures launched the North Bay’s first regional venture capital fund and began deploying capital into Marin + Sonoma’s most promising startup companies.

Today, we are excited to share details around our investment in Santa Rosa’s Union Credit (UC), a newly-formed fintech company that is developing an embedded one-click lending marketplace for consumers. 

UC’s marketplace allows credit unions to deliver perpetual credit approval and one-click loan activation to new member prospects. Leveraging UC’s technology, credit unions can now break into new markets digitally with firm offers of credit embedded into the front end of purchase and financing experiences.

Co-Founder & CEO Dave Buerger

UC came out of stealth with this media release in January, announcing $5 million in financing led by CMFG Ventures, MSIV, Array, and other seasoned fintech leaders. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Union Credit to MSIV’s growing North Bay portfolio.

Why We Invested

UC Co-Founder & CEO Dave Buerger is a repeat North Bay entrepreneur who successfully sold his first startup, Santa-Rosa-based CuneXus, in 2020 and is now building Union Credit as his second act. Dave is partnering with UC Co-Founder Barry Kirby, who previously led sales at CuneXus, to build what will be a game-changing product for all Americans in need of affordable credit.

With the rapid rise in interest rates over the past year, every basis point matters with respect to consumer loans. Credit unions typically offer highly competitive loan rates but can have difficulty reaching new prospective members, oftentimes competing with other financial institutions with larger marketing budgets and better online presences. UC has the potential to bring these competitive loans to the masses, a win for both consumers and credit unions in a time of growing economic uncertainty. 

Co-Founder & CRO Barry Kirby

UC is partnering with Dave and Barry’s former company, CuneXus, to bring this embedded digital storefront to market. This exclusive partnership means UC can focus on the nearly 250 credit unions already leveraging CuneXus to bring these credit offerings to the marketplace in a condensed time frame, with the goal of reaching the nearly 300 million Americans who are not existing customers of these credit unions.

MSIV Founder & Managing Partner Zachary Kushel sat down with Union Credit Co-Founders Dave Buerger and Barry Kirby to discuss UC’s vision and all that is ahead for the team as they work to build the next great North Bay company.

ZK: Dave, where did the idea to build Union Credit come from?

DB: When we launched CuneXus, we were innovating around perpetual loan approval, which was this idea of creating an Amazon-like lending experience, where credit union members didn’t need to fill out a formal loan application to have access to credit. It started as a way to save money by cutting back on print mail pieces, postage stamps, and marketing dollars, but really evolved into an overall digital strategy for our credit union members. Union Credit is the next logical step of that evolution. 

It dawned on us that the software platform we built was unique yet not being fully leveraged to bring the benefits of perpetual loan approval to the masses. If we could utilize a similar process and strategy outside of the credit union walls, and bring to the overall market a great product with a low loan rate from a local lender with a simple transaction experience, we could bring new members into the credit union system in a way that had never been done before, and that is precisely what we are now building with Union Credit.

ZK: Barry, building on that - can you share more about the ultimate vision here? What can Union Credit bring to the consumer lending world that has never existed before?

Barry with industry leaders at a recent conference

BK: When CuneXus was born, most fintech companies were focused on how to create a better loan application experience, while CuneXus took the opposite approach and questioned why we needed to have a loan application at all. With credit, consumers are asked to do all of the heavy lifting, to fill out forms and amass a trove of documents, only to be told 70% of the time, “Sorry, you can’t buy what we are selling.” Applying for a loan is a terrible customer experience, and CuneXus really did change that for the customers of these credit unions by pioneering perpetual approval.

Yet, the average age of a U.S. credit union member is 53 while the average U.S. consumer is 37. There are nearly 300 million Americans not taking advantage of this superior lending experience that the technology we pioneered enables - so what Union Credit is focused on doing is taking these local community lenders and giving them the reach and access to reach consumers on a national and digital level. These institutions would never have the resources to expand their reach this way on their own, so Union Credit will serve as that hub and spoke to bring consumers trusted, non-predatory credit options that will help their financial wellbeing.

ZK: What is the role that credit unions and community-based financial institutions play in America’s financial system?

BK: Credit unions are some of the ‘good guys’ in the financial world, and this idea is deeply ingrained in our company’s culture and in how we approach business. We focus on recruiting great people and in working closely with great partners and ensuring that we are all focused on creating good in our world. So many companies talk about this, but it is more than just a mantra for us - it is in our DNA. I strongly believe that only good people can create great products, and we are laser-focused on expanding our team with great people so that we can ultimately succeed in building a product that helps so many.

Union Credit’s Santa Rosa Headquarters

ZK: Dave, what does it mean to you to be a Sonoma county entrepreneur, and what excites you about Union Credit calling Santa Rosa home?

DB: I grew up in Sunnyvale, right in the middle of Silicon Valley, and after college I moved to Santa Rosa with my soon-to-be wife, which is where she grew up. I really fell in love with this community and immediately felt at home here in Sonoma county. I find there to be an incredible quality of life, a phenomenal talent pool, and it was the perfect place to put down roots for Union Credit after I had so much success building here with my first startup company.

We have a distributed team in addition to our office location here in Santa Rosa, and I find that it’s critical for us to have a home base here where our team can come together as one and for clients and partners to come visit us. I learned with my last company that when you invite customers from all over the country to an event in Sonoma county, everyone wants to come to experience the weather, visit wine country, and use this as a launching point for a trip to the coast. Sonoma county is a strategic location for us, and I’m excited to be building another company here in the community I call home.

Dave and Darin accepting an award

ZK: Dave, you and Barry had planned to launch Union Credit with a third co-founder, Darin Chong, who tragically passed away in October. What do you want the North Bay startup community to know about Darin?

DB: I always thought of Darin as my business soulmate - I met him on the first day of my career and interacted with him almost every day for the 22 years that followed. He was my co-founder at CuneXus and we really made each other better. When I was focused on a big-picture vision, Darin kept us grounded. When I was shooting from the hip, Darin was methodical and analytical and ensured we made sound decisions.

It was so sad to have to say goodbye to him, but in so many ways, we are building Union Credit in his honor. His energy is still here, and it’s worked its way into our culture as an inspiration to all. I’m constantly thinking to myself, “How would Darin react to this? What would he say? What would he do?” And the reality is I know exactly what he would say and do, because we knew each other so well. He’s caught me several times already on this new startup journey, whether he knows it or not, and that just makes me smile.

Zachary Kushel is Founder & Managing Partner of Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures.

Click here to subscribe to receive future pieces.