Blend, a Silicon Valley-based technology company that seeks to make the lending process for buyers and lenders faster and more straightforward, has raised $100M in Series D funding.
“We saw a massive opportunity in Blend and the work they are doing to deliver transparent, frictionless, accessible mortgages for everyone,” said Jerry Chen, partner at Greylock Partners in a statement.
“Banks and lenders understand the need for innovation, but they can’t do it alone. Blend is in a unique position to change the consumer lending industry with an unparalleled team of engineers, designers and product and data experts committed to helping people along their homebuying journey.”
Blend allows buyers and lenders to go through the loan origination process without mounds of paperwork and keeps them abreast of the loan’s progress from beginning to end.
Applying for and securing a mortgage remains one of the most painful parts of buying a home. Blend’s traction — along with LoanDepot’s commitment to mello, an end-to-end digital lending platform; Quicken Loans’ RocketMortgage; Bank of America’s online loan navigator and LendingHome’s online mortgage shop — show how the lending space is being targeted for disruption.
Buyers are guided step-by-step through the loan process with simple to-do lists, connectivity with their outside bank, payroll and tax accounts, and they can complete tasks on a desktop or mobile device.
When it comes to lenders, Blend provides Mortgage Intelligence, a tool that “helps capture a fast, and more complete application through dynamic data, document, and condition collection tailored to each borrower’s unique scenario,” real-time updates on loan applications with direct integration to a lender’s loan origination software, and seamless data verification.
Since its founding in 2012, Blend has tripled its number of users, which include some of the country’s largest lenders such as Wells Fargo and Movement Mortgage. The company has grown to 200 employees in two offices in San Francisco and New York, and they’re on track to do more than $30 billion in mortgage applications this year.
Blend founder and CEO Nima Ghamsari
“We started Blend in the wake of the financial crisis to bring simplicity and transparency to an industry that had long been underserved by technology, and had a compelling need for digitization,” said Blend founder and CEO Nima Ghamsari in a press release.
“Today, the impact of our intuitive, modern platform is felt by hundreds of thousands of borrowers across the country. Our partners command around 25 percent of the total U.S. mortgage market, and with this round of funding, we have the opportunity to expand the breadth of our product and serve more borrowers.”
Ghamsari says the $100 million will be used to grow Blend’s team and foray into the realm of mortgages and other types of loans. They also plan to expand outside the U.S. and begin operations in other countries in the near future.
The funding round was led by Greylock Partners with participation from Emergence Capital, 8VC, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Nyca Partners. This brings the company’s current total funding to $166M.
