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About & History Lending Cycle, Inc. was founded by bankers with a focus on research and development. |
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In 2005, bank EVP John Jackson was trying to find a solution to manage lending productivity and provide better operational visibility. He needed a team collaboration solution that would automate staff activity and other tasks that were being poorly addressed by spreadsheets. A key idea was that everyone involved should easily know the status of everything (loans, appraisal orders, etc.) and where it was in the process. He needed a solution that didn't exist. So, he started a research and development effort that year, formed Lending Cycle, Inc. (LCI, the Company) in 2007, and launched a unique solution to market in 2008. That solution is LendingCycle, a team collaboration software product that coordinates lending activity. The LendingCycle brand was specifically meant to identify products that intuitively connect everyone in the lending process.
While LendingCycle products were introduced in 2008, most of the company's early revenue was from government research grants (specifically for behavioral research in financial environments). Despite launching during a banking crisis, LCI's products were popular and company executives were often tapped by academic institutions and news outlets like CNN about the condition of community banks. In 2010, the company was sold for over double its last investment valuation to an organization that owned banks and financial technology companies. After the close of LCI, Jackson recruited technologist Josh Johnson to form a new company that focused on efficiencies for managing mass data sets (specifically sensitive personal information). In an unexpected turn, Jackson also led a successful effort with the original LCI investors to purchase LCI back. His intent was that these related companies would share talent and have a common management group while the sensitive activity of each would be isolated. After the purchase of LCI was complete, most all LCI technologies were licensed in an exclusive manner. The restrictions from these licensing agreements meant LCI was prohibited from selling or marketing the LendingCycle brand and related products in any manner. Wolters Kluwer's ComplianceOne Manager was an example of this arrangement. These licensing relationships generally had LCI serving in an early research and development role, while the licensee addressed sales and support. The licensee also hosted the software they sold, but LCI was required to provide a disaster recovery network with the capacity to handle up to 200 financial institution customers. Despite licensing-based restrictions, LCI was allowed to retain up to 10 direct LendingCycle clients. This allowed the Company to better understand and support the needs of all customers using its technology. After almost a decade of licensing rebranded versions of LendingCycle, Jackson and Johnson led an effort to bring all LendingCycle related products back under their management. In 2023, all licensing restrictions were lifted. At that time, related companies and efforts were merged into one of two entities. One that would perform research and provide related consulting, and one that would sell and support LendingCycle products (a new Lending Cycle, Inc. based in Tennessee). The delivery of the LendingCycle product was also simplified. There are now just two easy to understand product sets: LendingCycle Enterprise and LendingCycle Exchange. LendingCycle Enterprise is designed for the internal activity of financial institutions (e.g. bank employees). LendingCycle Exchange is designed to be used by the external partners of financial institutions (e.g. borrowers, appraisers, etc.). These products create a collaborative rules-based environment that allows the users of both to collaborate on projects (e.g. lenders and appraisers working together to close a loan). LCI maintains these varieties differently due to different user, support and security needs. All interactions of LendingCycle are provided in SaaS model. Lending Cycle, Inc. is a private Tennessee company headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee. The Company produces work management systems/software for financial institutions and their partners. |
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