Participated · Series C · Jan 2021

Roostify provides a configurable, modular home lending technology platform used by mortgage lenders to meet each client’s needs. Led by CEO Rajesh Bhat, the company supports more than 200 lending institutions and handles roughly $50B in loan volume monthly. Roostify raised a $32M Series C, bringing its total capital raised to $65M. The company intends to use the new funding to leverage innovative AI to simplify the entire home‑buying experience. Roostify also plans to grow its staff by 50% as part of its expansion. Roostify provides an integrated, public cloud digital lending platform that connects customers and lenders to accelerate the home‑loan experience, eliminate paper, and simplify origination workflows. The company processes nearly $20 billion in loans per month and reports its platform has reduced banks’ mortgage lending process time by an average of 20%. Roostify says lenders using the platform can realize up to 300% growth in loan applications and significant reductions in origination costs. Future plans described in the article include building out enhanced decision‑making and fulfillment capabilities, data and machine‑learning tools, and additional consumer lending products. The company is also pursuing geographic expansion into the UK and other European markets. Roostify was founded in 2012 and works with leading global banks on their digital transformation. Roostify provides an enterprise-class digital lending platform designed to speed mortgage origination and eliminate paper-bound inefficiencies. Its cloud-based, API-enabled, partner-friendly solution allows lenders to offer a seamless, branded experience from searching to closing. Since launching in 2014, Roostify has transacted over billions of dollars in mortgages and helped close hundreds of thousands of home loans nationwide. The company has expanded beyond the core application and processing workflow with integrations such as LendingTree and tools like Decision Builder to improve consumer education and lead quality. Headquartered in San Francisco, Roostify serves dozens of lenders across the United States, from enterprise banks to independent brokerages. The company plans to use new funding to accelerate delivery of its roadmap, deepen enterprise presence, and expand into new markets. Roostify provides automated mortgage-transaction technology that gives lenders, borrowers and other stakeholders a shared dashboard to increase transparency, accountability and cost savings. The platform is designed to help lenders approve and process more loans in less time and handle more loans simultaneously. Since its launch in early 2014 the company has partnered with Fannie Mae, Yodlee and others, processing thousands of mortgage applications through its platform. Roostify is led by CEO Rajesh Bhat and is hiring. The company plans to use new financing to expand its technology and add more lenders and other stakeholders to the platform. Roostify offers a web and mobile service that guides borrowers through loan application completion, qualification document submission, and tracking of the loan closing so all parties can share and track information and documents. Its secure interface is intended to reduce delays, cut unnecessary phone calls and emails, accelerate lender settlement, and give real estate agents smoother transactions and potential referrals. The product was developed by technologists working with real estate and mortgage banking experts. Roostify was founded by three technologists and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company says the product is already being used in the market. Roostify’s growth has been strengthened by an initial round of seed funding led by mortgage bank American Capital Corporation with participation from angel investors.

Led · Series C · Oct 2019

PeerStreet operates a technology-driven, two-sided marketplace that aggregates real-estate-backed loans from vetted private lenders for institutional and accredited retail investors. The platform reviews each investment opportunity both algorithmically and via in-house real estate and legal teams. Loans are sourced from regional lenders, enabling them to expand lending capital to finance property purchases, renovations, or rentals. PeerStreet plans to use the new equity to hire talent and scale its marketplace, bolster short-term bridge loan products, and grow a recently launched 30-year buy-to-rent loan program. Financially, the company had transacted over $2 billion on the platform as of March 2019 and has secured $4.25 billion in new capital commitments to purchase loans. The equity injection and institutional commitments are intended to support continued product expansion and marketplace growth. PeerStreet operates an award-winning two-sided marketplace that connects individual investors with private real-estate lenders to provide investments in short-term, real-estate-backed loans. The platform sources and curates loans from vetted private lenders across the U.S. and has funded over $900 million in loan volume to date. Over the past year PeerStreet more than doubled its volume, integrated with Wealthfront, Betterment, and Personal Capital, and released a short-term investment product to improve investor liquidity. The company has also significantly enhanced its suite of tools and analytics for lenders and plans to broaden the types of real estate loans it cultivates and hire additional talent. PeerStreet is led by CEO and co-founder Brew Johnson, COO and co-founder Brett Crosby, and Y Combinator alumnus Alex Perelman. Its model aims to lower marketplace acquisition costs and align incentives across lenders and investors to expand liquidity in real estate finance. PeerStreet operates an online marketplace that lets investors buy into real-estate-backed loans, using technology and big data to improve lenders' ability to purchase and sell loans. The company is led by CEO Brew Johnson and COO Brett Crosby. It launched in October 2015 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. To date it has funded over $165M in loan investments and returned more than $50M to investors. PeerStreet plans to use its new funding to grow operations and scale its marketplace. PeerStreet operates a marketplace for crowdfunding commercial and residential real estate-backed securities rather than direct loans or equity. The company bundles diversified sets of private loans into securities after conducting its own due diligence, supported by a proprietary data-crunching underwriting software program. Chief Executive and founder Brew Johnson led the platform through a private testing phase. During testing (April through launch) PeerStreet funded more than $35 million in real-estate-backed securities across 78 properties. The company reports annualized net yields to investors of 7–12% to date, with most loans carrying six- to 24-month terms. PeerStreet launched publicly and raised a $6.1 million seed round in the first quarter to expand the platform and scale beyond its testing phase.

Led · Series A · Oct 2018

Meritize is an education lender based in Frisco, Texas, led by CEO Chris Keaveney. The company uses individuals' academic, military and work achievements to enhance credit evaluation through a proprietary merit-based lending program. Its Meritize SkillsBuilding™ platform supports skills-based education and employer talent development to help close the skills gap and build skills-based careers. The lender leverages academic and experiential data to increase access to educational funding and improve outcomes. Meritize will use the Series A proceeds to scale operations, grow, and enhance its technology. Meritize is a Frisco, Texas-based student lending platform that uses an individual’s academic data to improve credit evaluation and broaden access to career-focused education financing. The company partners with schools and employers to offer student loans, financing for employer training and career success services. Meritize was co-founded by Chris Keaveney and Phillip Stegner and launched in January 2017, with full-phase lending beginning in the third quarter. It raised seed capital to accelerate growth and continue building its lending platform. The business plans to deploy the new funds to support sales and marketing and expand the team as it scales.

Participated · Series D · Dec 2017

Insikt is a San Francisco-based white-label lender that partners with retailers to provide affordable, credit-building loans to underbanked people who lack a credit score. Led by CEO James Gutierrez, the company leverages partner data and relationships to underwrite and distribute loans. Since late 2014, Insikt has processed more than 325,000 applicants across 30 partners in California, Texas and Illinois, totaling 620 stores, and has made 125,000 loans. The company began operating in Arizona last month. Insikt closed a $50m Series D that brings its total funding to $100m. It intends to use the funds for further growth in existing and new markets. Insikt is a San Francisco, CA-based fintech specializing in lending-as-a-service (LaaS). It operates an online loan origination and investing platform that enables brands to lend to their customers and gives accredited investors access to invest in consumer loan portfolios. The company was founded by James Gutierrez, the founder and former CEO of Oportun. Oportun has lent over $4 billion to the U.S. Latino community, a background that informs Insikt’s focus. Insikt plans to use the recent funding to continue to expand operations. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article. Insikt provides a Lending-as-a-Service (LaaS) platform that lets retailers, merchants and banks offer small installment loans while Insikt manages the operational details. Loans are placed on Insikt’s balance sheet for the first few months, powered by capital from partners such as Capital One and Atalaya Capital Management. After each brand accumulates its own portfolio, those loans are pooled and issued as bonds to outside investors. The platform is designed to allow consumers with low or no FICO scores to access installment plans at the point of sale. Insikt says the newly raised capital will be dedicated to fueling company growth. The company is based in San Francisco.

Participated · Series B · Dec 2016

ApplePie Capital operates a franchise loan marketplace that enables franchisees to obtain financing to start or expand their businesses and allows investors to earn fixed-income returns tied to franchise loans. The company offers a proprietary Core loan product and has formed partnerships with 60 franchise brands since it began lending in January 2015. ApplePie emphasizes credit quality—borrowers have an average 770 FICO score and a $2M median net worth—and its Core portfolio showed strong credit performance through the COVID-19 pandemic. ApplePie recently surpassed $1.25 billion in loans originated to franchise businesses. Future plans discussed in the articles include expanding distribution through a commercial relationship with Bankers Healthcare Group (BHG), including potential purchase of its Core product and future securitizations. The company is positioned to capture what it estimates is roughly $105 billion in annual debt capital demand within franchising as the sector rebounds. ApplePie Capital operates a franchise loan marketplace that connects franchisees seeking startup or expansion capital with investors seeking fixed-income returns. The firm focuses on channel-first lending by partnering directly with franchise brands and structuring products tailored to franchisees. Since it began lending in January 2015, ApplePie has formed partnerships with 40 franchise brands, funded over $50 million in loans, and returned over $7 million in principal and interest to investors. Borrower profiles cited include 750+ FICO scores and a $2M median net worth, and the company highlights strong credit performance to date. Recent capital and financing arrangements are intended to scale originations and broaden distribution to accelerate growth. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and added a seasoned franchise finance executive as a strategic advisor to support underwriting and risk management. ApplePie Capital operates a marketplace lending platform focused solely on the franchise industry, originating loans to franchise entrepreneurs and offering those loans to investors whole or fractionally. The firm uses a proprietary multi-factor underwriting model that analyzes historical brand performance, borrower experience, credit quality, and financials to curate high-quality investment opportunities. ApplePie streamlines funding for franchisees by pre-qualifying brands in 2 business days, providing firm commitments within 5 business days, and delivering funds in under 30 days through an automated online application. The company has eleven brands on its marketplace and reported more than $40 million in borrower capital demand to date. Financially, ApplePie closed a $6 million Series A and has secured over $28 million in debt capital commitments to fund loans, and has raised nearly $10 million in equity to date. Management says the Series A plus debt commitments will accelerate growth and increase lending capacity as loan demand scales. ApplePie Capital operates a loan marketplace that connects franchise brands and their entrepreneurs with investors seeking fixed-income returns. Founded in 2013 and led by CEO Denise Thomas and COO Steve Pelletier, the company is based in San Francisco. The marketplace is designed to offer loans of $100K to $1M to qualified borrowers. ApplePie planned to launch the marketplace in the first quarter of 2015 and to serve qualified borrowers across all 50 states. The company raised funding to support the planned launch and early operations.