Digital lender announces significant deal
Digital mortgage lender nesto has inked a deal to purchase CMLS Group, completing an acquisition that will see a merger between two companies with over $60 billion in combined mortgages under administration.
The company said on Friday that it was creating “the largest technology-enabled lender in Canada” through the deal, which was backed by investments from partners including Diagram Ventures, Portage, BMO Capital Partners, and the corporate venture capital arm of National Bank, NAventures.
Malik Yacoubi will spearhead the combined entity as chief executive officer, while CMLS CEO Sam Brown will lead the commercial division. The company said in a statement that each brand – nesto, CMLS and Intellifi – would remain intact following the merger.
Yacoubi said in remarks accompanying the announcement that the deal “reinforces [nesto’s] commitment to delivering on [its] mission: to offer a positive, empowering and transparent property financing experience, simplified from start to finish, to all Canadians.”
The acquisition adds a long-established player in the mortgage market to nesto’s offerings, with CMLS starting out as a commercial lender in 1974 and since developing into a prominent part of Canada’s commercial and single-family residential real estate markets.
Brown said the deal would accelerate CMLS’s next chapter of growth, and “further help our people, partners and clients succeed.”
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