Fuse, an AI-native loan origination and account opening platform, has announced a $5m initiative aimed at freeing credit unions from long-term contracts with legacy technology vendors.
The fund, dubbed the Fuse Rescue Fund, will offer the first 50 qualifying credit unions full access to the Fuse platform at no cost until their existing loan origination system (LOS) contract expires. Once that contract ends, those institutions will transition to a flat annual subscription of $100,000 — or $50,000 for smaller credit unions — with no implementation fees, variable charges, or hidden costs.
Fuse describes itself as a proactive automation platform built on generative AI, designed specifically for financial institutions. Its GenAI Lending Copilot continuously monitors manual workflows, identifies bottlenecks, and recommends fixes. Dedicated automation coaches work with each client on a fortnightly basis to implement those recommendations, with the company claiming clients can achieve up to 71% automation within their first year. Fuse backs these claims with contractual guarantees covering automation rates, integration timelines, core field access, and support service-level agreements.
The $5m fund is being positioned not merely as a promotional offer, but as a statement of intent about the future of enterprise software in an era of generative AI. Fuse argues that legacy vendors — many of them private equity-owned — have long profited from friction, charging six-figure implementation fees, five-figure tolls for basic configuration changes, and restricting data access to force contract renewals. The company contends that AI has fundamentally collapsed the cost of building software, removing any justification for such practices.
The fund reflects a broader market concern. FinTech lenders have grown their share of the loan market from 5% to nearly 40% in five years, while the number of federally insured credit unions has fallen by more than 30% over the past decade. Fuse argues that credit unions locked into legacy platforms are structurally unable to keep pace with these competitors, and that the velocity gap between legacy vendors — which release meaningful updates on a timescale of years — and Fuse, which ships updates weekly, widens every day.
FIS Global has been announced as the official reseller of Fuse following an extensive peer diligence process. The platform is already in use across more than 100 financial institutions, ranging from Navigant Credit Union, which holds $4bn in assets, to community-scale partners such as Canopy Credit Union, which holds $200m in assets.
Fuse co-founder Andres Klaric said, “Credit unions aren’t losing members because they lack heart, they’re losing them because their technology can’t keep up. Legacy platforms create a widening gap between what members expect and what the system can deliver: hidden fees, glacial change cycles, restricted data access, and zero path to automation. That gap is where fintechs are winning. Fuse exists to close it.”
Klaric added, “The era of the change order is dead. Legacy SaaS vendors built their businesses on friction. The harder it is for you to leave or change your system, the more the system providers profit. Credit unions aren’t losing market share because they lack the will to serve their members, they’re losing because they’re fighting a modern war with tools from the 1990s. We built Fuse to be a generational business that realigns incentives. We don’t get paid to lock you in; we get paid to automate your work. And we’re setting aside $5 million to prove it.”
Fuse co-founder Marc Escapa said, “SaaS needs to disrupt itself. Because our platform is AI-native, we build integrations in weeks, not months, and our system self-diagnoses bottlenecks. We pass those gains directly to clients. We’re betting that if we give credit unions the best technology for a fair, flat price, we will build the defining partnership of the next generation.”
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