Westpac increases investment in mortgage broker start-up uno Home Loans with $5m

Westpac Banking Corporation has increased its majority stake in digital mortgage broking platform Uno, ploughing another $5 million into the company.

The big four bank has now invested about $26.5 million into the venture and owns 92 per cent of ordinary shares, according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents. Factoring in shares that are subject to vesting, on a fully diluted basis Westpac still owns more than three quarters of the company.

Founder and chief executive Vincent Turner told The Australian Financial Review the funding provided by Westpac had given the fintech start-up a leg up it couldn’t have had otherwise.

“If we wanted to move fast, learn fast and grow quickly, we had to find a great group of people and investors right from the get go and execute quickly,” he said.

“There’s challenges with that, but we have had a six-fold increase in monthly mortgage applications in the last 12 months and the capital has allowed us to do that. It’s given us an unfair advantage.”

uno operates like a comparison website, but as well as showing potential home loan applicants the cheapest rates, it attempts to match them to the loan best suited to them.

Its recommendations take into consideration other factors including the size of the loan required (borrowing power) and speed at which it can be processed.

But up until recently, Uno did not overtly disclose Westpac owned the vast majority of its business.

To read more about Uno Home Loans, please click on the link below…

Source: Westpac increases investment in mortgage broker start-up uno Home Loans with $5m | afr.com