Mortgage tech news roundup: July 8

Executive moves, expansion and more

Mortgage tech news roundup: July 8

This week, digital mortgage home lender Better made several executive appointments designed to propel new growth. Fintech expert Mortgage Brain appointed a new chief operating officer. Built Technologies launched a new software tool.  Offerpad is expanding within Colorado. Thoughtworks and Bluestone partnered on a new digital lending platform.

Better

Better, a digital mortgage home lender, said it has made new executive appointments designed to help position the company for further growth.

The New York-based company named Sushil Sharma as its first chief growth officer and Steve Riddle as its new head of sales.

Previously, Sharma was chief product officer at Lending Tree and chief product officer at Match. He has more than 20 years of experience in product management and software lending.

Riddell has more than 30 years of executive sales experience, previously serving in leadership roles at Casper, Sprint and Blinds.com.

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Other new appointments include Ryan Jewison as head of Better Cover, Nick Taylor as head of Better Real Estate, Josh Durodola as head of Better Services, Brian Ro as vice president of people, Jennifer Malin as vice president of enterprise risk and Nitin Bhutani as vice president of marketing.

Better was founded in 2016.

Mortgage Brain

Fintech expert Mortgage Brain appointed Cloë Atkinson as its chief operating officer.

In her new role, Atkinson will lead and scale the company’s technology and business operations. Those include product innovation, product management, infrastructure and operations, technology development and quality assurance. She will report directly to Mortgage Brain group CEO Zahid Bilgrami.

Atkinson joined the company earlier in 2022 after the acquisition of Mortgage Engine, a company she launched more than four years ago.  The company’s technology connects major retail mortgage application systems to distributors via its API platform. This collaborative strategy is designed to support industry-wide growth by letting aggregators, distributors and technology providers connect with mortgage lenders without building multiple API links.

Built Technologies

Built Technologies, a provider of construction finance technology, has launched a new software tool designed help manage risk in multiple ways.

The Tennessee-based company bills the tool – Project Pro – as a first-of-its kind contractor management and project monitoring product for lenders.

The idea is to help construction lenders globally who are limited in their ability to monitor and management their construction portfolio risks. Typically, they lack specialized tools built for construction financing designed to provide actionable insights, Built said.

Project Pro addresses areas including contractor management and project monitoring. It also has a dashboard designed to provide a single source of truth with the most important project information in one view.

Offerpad

Offerpad, a residential real estate tech-enabled platform based in Arizona, is expanding within Colorado.

The company said it expanded in northern and southern Colorado with the launch of its newest markets in Colorado Springs and Fort Collins.

Offerpad’s products are designed to eliminate buyer and seller uncertainty. Options include competitive cash offers within 24 hours, flexible closing dates, no open houses or showings and complementary extended stay options so sellers can stay in their current home for up to three days after Offerpad buys it.

Sellers can also list their home on the open market with a local Offerpad agent. The company handles everything for the sellers, including house cleaning and yardwork, to help prepare their home for sale.

Bluestone, Thoughtworks

Thoughtworks and Bluestone are joining up to launch a new digital lending platform.

Thoughtworks is a global technology consultancy that integrates strategy, design and engineering to drive digital innovation. Bluestone is a full-service lender that provides a range of residential home loan products and services.

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Bluestone said it has viewed going digital as a way to become a “future ready” organization, and that partnering with Thoughtworks is designed to fast track the goal by way of a “holistic, cloud-hosted digital lending platform.”

The platform is designed to bring greater transparency to brokers, borrowers and employees, and also facilitate a modern and intuitive approach to loan servicing and collections.