Maxwell, a technology startup that’s focused on helping small to midsize mortgage lenders streamline their processes, has raised $52.5 million that the company will use to make hires in product, engineering, sales and marketing.
The funding round was led by Fin VC with participation from Wells Fargo Strategic Capital along with existing investors Prudence, Rotor Capital and TTV Capital. Fin VC and TTV Capital led a $16.3 million Series B round in March. A spokesperson for Maxwell said the raise was an additional Series B funding, and not Series C.
In an announcement, Maxwell co-founder and CEO John Paasonen said small to midsize lenders have been losing market share to large, online lenders due to inefficiencies that drive up expenses.
But with rising interest rates expected to curb demand for refinancing, small and midsize lenders — the only banking presence in close to one in five U.S. counties — could have the upper hand in winning business from homebuyers.
John Paasonen
“With their local knowledge, relationships, and relevance within their communities, these lenders have a chance to thrive in the coming purchase-driven market,” Paasonen said in a statement. “People are your competitive advantage. Lenders who retain a people-first mentality and empower their staff with the best technology, rather than replacing them with it, will be the ones with the best margin and the first choice for many borrowers.”
Founded in 2015, Maxwell Financial Labs Inc. and its subsidiary, Maxwell Lender Solutions Inc., do business as “Maxwell,” providing services to more than 200 lenders.
To give its lender clients access to competitive rates that they can use to win borrowers, Maxwell last month announced the launch of Maxwell Capital, a service designed to help lenders sell their loans on the secondary market.
By acting as a dedicated investor, Maxwell says it can help lenders who trade between $100 million and $5 billion a year to secondary market investors benefit from the economies of scale of Maxwell’s network.
Another recently launched service is Maxwell Diligence, which lets lenders outsource their quality control and due diligence services to Maxwell, which says it employs “technology, experience, and data” to reduce risk and errors.
Maxwell currently has more than two dozen openings posted on Lever in engineering, sales, operations and product.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct that Maxwell’s latest raise was an additional Series B funding, and not Series C.