New investors, executive hires, partnerships and more
This week, Neat Capital has attracted a new key investor. Xactus hired a new chief financial officer. Houwzer chose a veteran entrepreneur as its executive chairman. EasyKnock brought on a new general counsel and corporate secretary. The fintech software start-up leadPops has raised Series A financing. Gateless, a mortgage technology company focused on AI, formed a partnership to boost a key product. Mortgage broker fintech Loan Factory is debuting a new logo.
Neat Capital
Fintech Neat Capital has attracted a new investor designed to help accelerate its consumer home lending business known as Neat Loans.
The Colorado-based company announced that it has closed a Series B-2 financing round with Forecast Labs, a New York City-based venture group that is also a division of Comcast.
Forecast Labs has worked with a number of fintech companies including Acorns, Hippo and Public.com.
Neither side disclosed details about the additional funding. It follows a $40 million Series B round announced in early 2021.
Neat Capital is a mortgage bank and produces its own mortgage loans, but banks can also use its technology platform and production capabilities for their own purposes. In addition, Neat Capital provides brokerage services to help consumers list and buy real estate.
Xactus
Mortgage verification tech company Xactus hired Kevin Ryan as its chief financial officer.
Previously, Ryan was CEO of Keane, an unclaimed property service provider. He also previously served in various leadership or executive roles there.
In his new role, Ryan will guide efforts at Xactus to streamline its finance and accounting operations. Ryan has extensive experience in data analysis and data management, and will use those skills to help build up a wider analytical infrastructure at the company.
Specifically, he will create data and analytical reporting tools among other tasks, Xactus chairman and CEO Perry Steiner said in prepared remarks.
Xactus is the result of a collective merger of companies that include Credit Plus, Universal Credit Services, CIS Credit Solutions, Avantus, DataFacts Lending Solutions and Sharper Lending.
Houwzer
Houwzer, which bills itself as a next-generation real estate brokerage and homeownership platform, has chosen Jonathan Zabusky as its executive chairman.
Zabusky was most recently president and board director at GrubHub Inc. He’ll work with Houwzer CEO Mike Maher to drive future growth, focused on refining corporate strategy.
Maher said in prepared remarks that Zabusky will “play a critical role in fine-tuning our approach and ensuring we will continue to prioritize resources to accelerate growth and market share.”
EasyKnock
EasyKnock, a technology-enabled residential sale-leaseback company, hired Kanchana Leung as its new general counsel and corporate secretary.
In her new position, Leung will focus on strengthening the start-up’s legal and compliance infrastructure. She will also advise on growth initiatives and protecting the company and customers from legal risks and lawsuits.
Previously, Leung served as chief legal officer of Gilead Capital and as a FINRA arbitrator.
Most recently, Leung was at Better.com, where she served as deputy general counsel and gave legal support to operating companies in the areas of mortgage, real estate brokerage, title and settlement services and homeowners insurance.
EasyKnock launched in 2016, employs more than 100 people and is based in New York City.
leadPops
The fintech leadPops has raised a $3.5 million Series A financing that will help expand the reach of its digital customer acquisition and marketing software for the mortgage, real estate and insurance industries.
Cultivation Capital led the financing, though Second Century Ventures also participated.
Plans call for using the money to scale operations, develop and launch new products and hire additional staff.
As part of the financing, Barry Sandweiss, a general partner at Cultivation Capital, will join leadPops CEO Andrew Pawlak and COO Rosa Romaine on the company’s board of directors.
Founded in 2011, leadPops now has more than 3,000 clients.
Gateless
Gateless, a mortgage technology company focused on AI, said it has integrated Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter product into its Gateless Smart Underwrite option.
The partnership is designed to boost the efficiency of Smart Underwrite, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to help determine clear underwriting conditions and automate data quality checks in a quicker and more efficient way. By doing so, the company said it can reduce the time it takes to manufacture a loan by up to 10-15 days.
Gateless launched in 2021. Guaranteed Rate President and CEO Victor Ciardelli founded the company when Guaranteed Rate acquired AI Foundry, a business unit of Kodak Alaris.
Loan Factory
Mortgage broker Loan Factory is debuting a new logo.
The fintech company said the decision to refresh its corporate look is designed to reflect ongoing efforts to make the loan process faster, easier and more customer friendly.
