Feb. 4, 2019

Better Mortgage, one of the nation's largest digital lenders, has raised $70 million in Series C funds led by American Express and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan.

Existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Goldman Sachs and Pine Brook, who led the company's $15 million Series B round in 2017, also participated in the round, according to a press release. The company will use the investment to support its technology platform and continued growth, including the addition of partnership channels and to hiring employees.

"Buying a home is one of the biggest financial life events that our customers experience, but the process is often full of pain points," Lindsay Fitzgerald, managing director, Amex Ventures, said in the release. "By building a mortgage platform to be fully digital from the ground up, Better Mortgage has reduced the complexity around the home buying process."

The company has funded more than $2 billion in loans since it launched in 2016, with 7,000 customers being able to refinance.

The company expanded its service last week to four more states, including Alaska, Oklahoma, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Topics: Financial News, Mobile Banking

Companies: Better Mortgage Corporation

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Feb. 4, 2019

Aire, a fintech that uses machine learning to create more equitable credit scoring methods for consumers, has raised $11 million in Series B funds led by Crane Venture Partners, Experian Ventures and Orange Digital Ventures, according to a press release.

Existing investors White Star Capital and Sunstone Capital also participated in the round.

The funding will help pay for expansion into the U.S., and investment in the company’s credit insight engine.

"Aire is built on the premise that empowering consumers to play an active role in their credit assessment is the only way to give lenders a comprehensive view with which to make a decision," said Aneesh Varma, co-founder and CEO of Aire, in the release.

The company stated 1.7 billion people lack access to formal financial services. In the U.S., one in 10 consumers are considered "credit invisible" because they have no credit record, and half of consumers feel held back by weak credit scores, according to the release.

Aire has focused heavily in mobile initiatives to expand credit, through its Orange Bank in Europe and Orange Money in Africa.

Aire officials said two years after getting formal approval from the Financial Conduct Authority, the firm has grown from two employees to 40 and has scored more than $10 billion in credit across various forms. The firm has also entered alliances with Toyota Financial Services and online retailer N Brown.

Topics: Financial News, Mobile Banking

Companies: Aire

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Feb. 4, 2019

Restaurant digital orders have grown an average of 23 percent, per year since 2013, and will triple by the end of 2020, according to a report from NPD Group.

The report, called Delivering Digital Convenience, found that 70 percent of a restaurant's digital orders come through its mobile app or its website, with the remaining orders coming through third-party apps or websites. Customers used the restaurant's own app most of the time because of rewards points or savings, and other brands appeal to customers because they want to create a custom order or take friction out of the ordering process.

Third-party apps like DoorDash, UberEats or Grubhub/Seamless accounted for 40 percent share of the 20 most used apps, and are used by consumers who want to look up various food items and check prices.  

"Digital orders will remain an outsized source of growth for the restaurant industry over the next few years, and operators who desire to grow need to embrace a digital strategy," said David Portalatin, NPD food industry adviser and author of Eating Patterns in America, said in the announcement. "There are clear leaders in the digital ordering space, and third-party providers who have achieved critical mass the fastest."

Topics: In-App Payments, Loyalty Programs, Mobile Apps, Mobile Payments, Restaurants

Companies: Grubhub, The NPD Group, Inc., Uber Eats, DoorDash

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Feb. 4, 2019

Bud Financial Ltd., a London-based fintech with open banking technology that allows rival apps to interact with each other, has raised $20 million in Series A funds from a group led by HSBC and Goldman Sachs, according to a blog post from Co-Founder Edward Maslaveckas.

Beyond the lead investors, participants in the funding include Banco Sabadell, ANZ, Investec and venture firms 9Yards Capital and Lord Fink, the former CEO of hedge fund Man Group.

Maslaveckas called the investment "proof that we're going in the right direction."

Bud has 85 providers ready to operate through the platform and the company has grown from an initial two employees to 70 employees. The firm is on pace double in size by the end of 2019, according to the blog post.

Topics: Financial News, Mobile Apps, Mobile Banking, Technology Providers

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