Sales restructure includes cuts to BDM roles
Joust has announced its intention to engage in a sale process and has confirmed that it will restructure its sales function as part of a process to streamline its operations.
In a media statement issued on Tuesday afternoon, the online home loan marketplace announced a series of strategic initiatives aimed at ensuring its ongoing viability in the current market.
The business said it would engage in a sale process and restructure its sales functions to allow for further focus on its platform and technology.
As part of its restructuring efforts, Joust has confirmed that it would “streamline its operations”, which included the loss of some of its key business development managers. While these decisions were not made lightly, they were viewed as essential steps to create a leaner, more agile organisation that could better navigate the current market, the company said.
Joust CEO Carl Hammerschmidt (pictured above) said that the business was currently in discussion with a range of potential investors and partners who could potentially bring value to support Joust’s future growth ambitions.
The company is committed to finding a partner who shares its vision of empowering consumers and enhancing the mortgage industry, he said.
"We are actively exploring a sale process for the business to secure the next phase of Joust and continue our mission of helping Australians achieve their financial goals and supporting the lending industry for growth," Hammerschmidt said.
Commenting on the restructure, Hammerschmidt said that while the decision was difficult, the company understood the importance of adapting to changing circumstances.
“The restructuring allows us to focus on our highly mature and highly scalable technology and platform,” Hammerschmidt said.
“Our restructuring efforts are aimed at ensuring Joust remains resilient, competitive, and able to continue delivering value to our customers, partners and shareholders."
Joust would continue to work with all existing supplier partners and continue to deliver new features and services for the marketplace platform and Joust Connect products, Hammerschmidt said.
“As we continuously improve our market-leading technology and platform, we will also continue to work with our 50+ lender partners and ensure that it remains an important tool for them to develop their deal pipelines going forward,” he said.
In response to questions from MPA around whether interest rate rises and a recent downturn in residential lending had affected business operations, Hammerschmidt described economic conditions over the last 12 months as “challenging”.
“While the interest rate rises have meant that borrowers have a greater need to find a better deal on their refinancing than ever before, the downturn in new residential lending and serviceability challenges for borrowers have also had an impact on Joust and its partners,” he said.
He said that Joust remained “extremely optimistic” about the business’ prospects and its platform for borrowers and lenders and said that the business was “constantly exploring” opportunities to ensure its long-term success.
Australian fintech Joust has built a business model around helping borrowers to secure competitive interest rates whilst providing mortgage brokers with innovative solutions to connect with quality prospects. In April 2022, Joust announced a new process to attract brokers, adding a new supplier sign-up portal to its website. The following month, it launched 'Instant Match', a subscription service using customer information to identify the top three home loans and lenders and brokers suited to their needs.
Joust said that it intends to keep stakeholders informed of developments related to the sale process and restructuring efforts as it continues to adapt and evolve to the current market conditions.
