A technology startup that’s focused on helping small to midsize mortgage lenders play in the big leagues by streamlining their entire lending process has announced a second round of funding in just eight months.
Maxwell Lender Solutions Inc. — which does business simply as “Maxwell” — has announced a $16.3 million Series B funding round led by Fin VC and TTV Capital. That comes on the heels of $5 million in Series A funding last June.
Founded in 2016, Denver-based Maxwell came into its own during the refinancing boom, with more than $100 billion in loan volume handled to date. Last year, the company’s headcount surpassed 200, and it now says its platform handles more than $6 billion in mortgage volume a month.
Maxwell says it’s poised to maintain that momentum, even as interest rates climb and mortgage lenders shift their sights from refinancing to purchase loans.
John Paasonen
“Community lenders are uniquely positioned for growth by delivering superior and tailored lending products to their markets,” said Maxwell co-founder and CEO John Paasonen in a statement. “These lenders excel in their local knowledge, local relationships, and local relevance — strengths that will serve them well as Gen Xers and millennials seek homeownership in high numbers.”
Based on investments in SoFi and Figure, Fin VC General Partner Peter Ackerson said he expects Maxwell to continue to grow “at a breakneck pace” by working with community lenders that originate $50 million to $5 billion a year in mortgages.
While many other technology providers are focused primarily on streamlining the application process, Maxwell says it also helps clients streamline loan fulfillment, which the company says accounts for half of the cost of originating a mortgage.
Using aggregated loan data from its network of more than 250 community lenders and “real-time data insights,” Maxwell says it’s automated many of the tedious manual tasks other lenders heap on loan officers, processors and underwriters. As a result, the company claims lenders using its platform are able to close loans more than 50% faster.
In a blog post, Paasonen said the latest round of funding will allow Maxwell to:
- Boost the “pace and measure of innovation” across the company’s product, design, and engineering teams
- Continue to scale company’s loan fulfillment platform, focussing on “operational excellence, modular capacity, and technology-driven differentiation”
- Explore additional ways “to simplify the homeownership journey with the power of data and technology, in close partnership with the hundreds of lenders in our network”
The company said the latest round of funding is also notable because it marks the first strategic investment from The Mortgage Collaborative’s venture capital fund, TMC Emerging Technology Fund LP. The Mortgage Collaborative is a cooperative of independent mortgage banking companies, banks, credit unions and service providers formed in 2013 to harness their collective buying power and “level the playing field” with big lenders.
In addition Fin VC and TTV Capital, Paasonen said the Series B funding included new investors Rotor Capital, Prudence Holdings, and The Mortgage Collaborative Emerging Technology Fund. Existing partners Anthemis Group, Route 66 Ventures, Cantos Ventures, Thirdstream Partners, and Sovereign’s Capital also participated.
