As a business owner, Chris Sommers knows first hand how “painful” the lending process can be for banks and their borrowers.
For Sommers, it’s an experience he said over the years has involved loads of paperwork, lost documents and other inefficiencies. Sommers, who owns Pi Pizzeria, figured there had to be an easier way to secure and manage a loan. He decided to create a solution.
Sommers is founder of Accrue Technologies, which last week announced it has been acquired by Nashville-based software development firm Core10. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded about a year ago, Accrue has developed a lending and banking platform for community banks and credit unions. The technology aims to curate core banking systems and functions, such as document management and account opening, on a single platform. The startup contends it wants to offer “big bank tech without the big bank budget.”
Sommers said he developed most of Accrue’s technology platform on his own. While known for his popular pizza restaurants. Sommers isn’t stranger to the technology. He previously worked in San Francisco for software giant Salesforce.
“I had been kind of looking for an entrance back into tech,” Sommers said. “When the pandemic hit, it was the perfect time because it also accelerated the need for digital transformation at banks because things that were previously done with paper, in-person and at branches, (they) really could no longer do that.”
Core10’s acquisition of Accrue builds upon an existing relationship between the two firms. Sommers said Core10 has been a minority owner of Accrue since its launch, helping develop its product as a co-owner and vendor to the startup. The two firms began moving forward with the acquisition this summer, Sommers said. Accrue and Core10 were introduced to each other through St. Louis serial entrepreneur Jim McKelvey, an investor in both firms.
"It really was a fantastic meeting of different skill sets,” said Lee Farabaugh, co-founder and president of Core10. “Chris really understood what it was like to be a small business owner, to deal with commercial lending and all the pitfalls and frustrations. We really understood what needed to happen on the backend, that it was critical that we be connected to banking cores to have a shot at selling this product to banks.”
Founded in 2016, Core10 provides customer software development and implementation services for fintech and financial services companies. It operates with a “hereshore” model that creates U.S.-based software development hubs in rural areas.
With Accrue’s acquisition, Sommers has become Core10’s chief product officer. He said Accrue recently finished the beta launch of its product and is starting to implement it with banks. He said the company will use those experiences to "ramp up aggressively next year.”
Prior to Accrue’s acquisition, Sommers raised $3 million for the fintech startup. That includes $1 million from McKelvey and $2 million from New York-based Jacob Asset Management. Sommers also has used local bankers, including Saint Louis Bank CEO Travis Liebig and First Bank Chief Credit Officer Eric Hallgreen, as advisers to the startup.
“That’s been incredibly invaluable,” Sommers said.
