LenderClose, a platform that consolidates data sets for loan underwriters, is using a new round of funding to more than double its team by the end of the year. The company announced the round last week, and although it is still finalizing the amount with investors, founder and CEO Omar Jordan estimated the funding at around $10 million. 

In addition to adding more employees, LenderClose would like to add more than 100 financial institutions to its nearly 200 clients currently using the platform. Jordan said the company is aiming to hire employees in sales, marketing, finance, human resources, product and engineering. The company, based in Des Moines, Iowa, currently has more than 30 employees but would like to add 35 more by the end of the year.  

“You can’t build technology products without tech talent, and you can’t add 100 credit unions without a sales force,” Jordan said. “Every department is going to get an injection of human capital.” 

See also: Blend piloting digital mortgage closing tool

LenderClose helps underwriters by pulling in data from third-party vendors into one place, making the underwriting process more efficient. The company focuses on home equity and real estate loans, and it pulls from property data vendors like CoreLogic, Veros and Black Knight. By consolidating these disparate data sets onto its own platform, LenderClose said it can shorten the lending cycle from weeks to minutes, in some cases. The company makes money from fees charged to financial institution clients. 

The company was founded in 2015, and its investors include Ascentra, Collins Community and Serve credit unions. In addition to adding new employees, Jordan said LenderClose would like to add new technologies to its platform. He said including remote online notarization to the platform could help underwriters provide a better customer experience.  

Speeding up the lending cycle for financial institutions is a growing industry. Blend, for example, white labels its mortgage application process for major clients like Wells Fargo and BMO Harris. Jordan, however, said the two companies have a different focus, and that Blend’s solution is more customer-facing. 

“Our focus has been back-office operations for community banks and credit unions,” he added.