The companies poised to becomes the next SaaS giants

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With hindsight everything makes sense. The really brilliant ideas are the ones that find a pain point, or an industry slow to change and they not only solve quickly for that but build platform after platform to solve for everything in that industry and beyond. Lending and education were two industries slow to adapt and these two companies have hit the accelerator pedal to become industry leaders.  

Mortgage rates get a ton of press and discussion but we rarely talk about how competitive the industry is for banks and credit unions. MeridianLink has been the not-so-secret weapon helping financial institutions thrive in the intense landscape of modern digital lending. MeridianLink’s solutions are all integrated through a unified data platform, MeridianLink One, acting as a powerful technology partner for both banks and credit unions. 

This helps address some of the more significant pain points in the lending process. From the point-of-view of banks, an estimated 71% of commercial and consumer lending workflows are still manual. By integrating these formerly disparate data points together, MeridianLink is helping financial institutions and consumer reporting agencies drive cost-effective growth at all points of the consumer lifecycle. Everything from mortgage approvals to business lending portfolios become faster, more efficient, and ultimately more profitable.

Likewise, consumers get a truly frictionless experience when opening an account or applying for a loan with a bank. This can help create a long-term, positive impression with the lender in general – one that encourages loyalty moving forward. When it comes to smaller lending companies trying to compete with lending giants – every positive impression makes a massive difference. MeridianLink’s unique platform helps drive more positive experiences. 

“Having a trusted partner in MeridianLink to support our members’ banking needs is crucial in today’s economic climate,” said Daniel J. Chiappone, senior vice president of lending at Space Coast Credit Union. “The fact that we can enhance the unified platform with additional offerings when we need them means we are always finding new ways to deliver better efficiency and innovative solutions to our members.”

The implementation of MeridianLink Consumer’s Advanced Decisioning capabilities proved advantageous for the credit union, as it resulted in a streamlined process and a 12.5% increase in instant decisioning from their previous performance, and a 14.1% increase in instant decisioning for credit tiers over 660. For those same credit tiers, after implementing Advanced Decisioning, SCCU is instantly approving 52.5% of all applications.

This is part of why an estimated 56% of financial institutions have said they plan to increase their technology spending in 2024 alone. Through solutions like MeridianLink, it’s possible for financial institutions of all sizes to speed up the time to complete a consumer’s online application.

Expanding the scope of learning

Instructure, the maker of Canvas, has flipped the market share in online education and become the dominant player at the head of a now $52B industry. 

In less than a decade, Canvas disrupted the industry and displaced the market leader, Blackboard, who once held a commanding 80% market share now sits at 15%. There are several reasons why Canvas was able to disrupt the industry leader. Blackboard had their solution deployed on-premise for thousands of customers around the globe. As a nimble SAAS solution, Canvas, committed to open standards, was flexible and extensible, allowing institutions to customize based on their unique needs. Instructure hired former educators (consistently with over 30% of employees coming from the education industry) and built a workforce that understands the needs of educators. A number of other factors fueled its ascension. 

Instructure has evolved its go-to-market motions beyond the LMS, now serving educators, students, and professionals across the entire lifespan of the learner journey. They acquired Parchment for $795M last year in a deal that will look very advantageous over time. Mostly because it was the last piece to creating a platform and company synonymous with not only the entire educational journey but the career journey as well. 

As companies look to upskill and continually train to retain workers and avoid turnover, Instructure is becoming what AWS, Adobe, Salesforce and others have become in their industries – a one-stop cloud to manage everything and everyone along lifelong learning. That’s what is taking them from the top learning management tool to the leader of the massive, growing and new $52B industry that manages all things talent development. 

Economy of scale across industries is allowing them to lead and pass the competition. More than half of the top K-12 institutions in the country, 83% of research universities including the entire Ivy League and 4M lifelong learners acquiring new skills all use the platform. And Google, Apple, AWS, Microsoft and 900 partners integrate their platform and services. 

Instructure also has a massive opportunity to ride a second wave of disruption presented by generative AI. Instructure already has the most users and the highest R&D capacity of its competitors, allowing it to invest in future innovation. Most of the work that happens inside and outside of classrooms is attached to the LMS in one way, shape or form. Instructure’s partners are launching their applications billions of times a year through Canvas, as students and teachers spend hours a day on the platform.

Instructure added other solutions, such as assessment management and insights needed to help educators take action. Through its LearnPlatform acquisition, Instructure provides research-based insights on the effectiveness of the many edtech solutions available to educators. With almost 2,600 edtech tools in use on average in districts across the United States, educators need a trusted partner to help them choose the most effective solutions that improve student outcomes.

The addition of Parchment to the Instucture Learning Ecosystem means connecting the evidence of learning with the employment opportunities or admissions in other learning opportunities. Adding this powerful solution to the industry leader brings the ability to provide a lifelong view of credentials. This includes the issuing of credentials, their definition, and the ability to verify those credentials.