Funding.com.au is the latest entrant to the fintech space – and the first of its kind to hone in on Australia’s colossal mortgage market.
Funding currently assists borrowers seeking short to medium term mortgages through its online application process. As the direct lender, it can assist borrowers with a quick, easy and cost effective settlement – in as little as two to three days.
Unlike other finance upstarts including peer-to-peer or ‘platform’ lenders (SocietyOne, RateSetter) or business lenders (Prospa, Moula) – loans issued by Funding are backed by real estate security.
How does Funding do things differently?
Mortgage lawyer, and Funding founder, Jack O’Reilly (pictured) says ‘we take a common sense approach when assessing borrower’s applications and we only originate loans that have quality underlying security – typically lending to a maximum of 65 to 70 percent of property value.’
On average each month the site receives applications in the millions going by loan dollar value and is increasing. Whilst funding.com.au settled its first loan late last year – it continues to invest in its product to further simplify and automate the mortgage process (an instant risk based quoting feature, for example, is being rolled out over the coming months together with further online features).
Funding’s business model is not only leveraging technology to take advantage of online efficiencies but is concentrated on re-building the mortgage process with the user in mind.
Funding is soon to open up investment opportunities for wholesale investors – offering attractive returns, frequent cash flow and solid management.
Whilst Funding is initially servicing the Australian specialized mortgage market, it isn’t ruling out other international lending spaces with similar titling systems and has recently secured the domain funding.co.
It’s a great time to be in fintech
Jack says “It is truly an exciting time for the finance industry and its great to be apart of the fintech space. We have had some of the brightest software engineers, lawyers and financial services minds working on funding.com.au.”
The short to medium term mortgage market is not traditionally serviced very well by the big banks if at all. For example, one recent loan we settled was for property improvements where the borrower needed the funding for 6 months and the borrower planned to sell the property to repay the loan. The loan to value ratio was under 50 per cent, it was a no brainer but the banks couldn’t work to the time frame required by the borrower.
How did Funding come to be?
Jack has over eight years experience in lending, credit and mortgages. His broad experience includes all aspects from structuring mortgage products, assessing, originating and servicing mortgages, investing in mortgages, right through to legal recovery.
Witnessing first hand the emerging market of borrowers searching for finance products online and understanding how technology is rapidly evolving in this space, he founded funding.co to service this growing demand.
“Traditional banking models have fallen behind – they’re slow, rigid, packed with fees and slapped with red tape,” he told Anthill.
“When it comes to credit, they leave non-conforming borrowers out in the cold – and other times, can’t keep up with would-be-approved borrowers who need quick access to cash. They just don’t always work – for everyone.
“We recognise this as an incredible opportunity!”
What next for these guys? Funding now intends to showcase with other start-ups at ‘TechCrunch Disrupt’ in New York in May and Jack also revealed that though they are still self-funded, he’s not ruling out a Series A in the close future.
