Bill Kaper, a veteran of Amazon.com and Root Insurance who opened the Columbus second headquarters of a Silicon Valley fintech startup just seven months ago, has been named CTO of Lower.com.
Kaper said he first encountered the digital lender's innovation while searching for a home after Root recruited him to Columbus in 2019.
"It was the fastest and easiest closing I had ever experienced," Kaper said in a news release.
Kaper said Lower founder and CEO Dan Snyder intrigued him with a vision for world-class product and engineering.
"But when I heard him talk about how Lower is obsessed with the customer experience and wants to serve them in all phases of their journey, I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said.
New Albany-based Lower Holding Co., which started in 2018 as a brand of Snyder's more traditional mortgage company Homeside Financial LLC, became the parent and primary focus of growth this year. In June it raised $100 million in venture capital.
Kaper left digital insurer Root Inc. in March to become CTO and Columbus office lead for Huckleberry Insurance Services LLC, as the commercial insurance platform for small businesses planned to move its main office to New York City from San Francisco.
He had stepped down in February after two years as vice president of engineering at Root, where he built the team to 200 engineers from 50. A native of western Pennsylvania, Kaper had worked for Amazon.com Inc. for nearly eight years in the Pittsburgh area, growing engineering teams for applied science in language translation and machine learning.
"Bill will be instrumental in executing our aggressive product and technology innovation roadmap," Snyder said in the release. "He's the perfect infusion of experience, leadership, and strategic vision we wanted for our tech team."
Kaper in a farewell LinkedIn post a week ago said it took a "once-in-a-lifetime" chance to get him to leave Huckleberry.
"I'm extremely proud of the tremendous innovation and completely digital application, quote, and bind experience the team delivered on behalf of Huckleberry's customers," he said. "I feel lucky and blessed to have worked with this group."
