A Central Ohio startup whose software helps loan officers build conversation-driven relationships with real estate agents and contact prospective clients has been acquired.
Bonzo Group LLC will continue to operate as a Grandview Heights subsidiary of Mobile Market Intelligence, a Utah company making data analytics and market insight platforms for the real estate and mortgage industries. Terms were not disclosed.
"We're going to obviously complement each other," Bonzo co-founder and President Jason Perkins said in an interview. "Why didn't we lose any people in this acquistion? They see and feel the big picture: They see how much further we can take this.
"We can really be on the offense to take over the whole industry."
CEO Chad Jampedro, a former customer who joined Bonzo in 2022, will keep leading the business unit within MMI along with Perkins and co-founder Miles Miller, who's COO and chief revenue officer.
Bonzo has about 50 employees, including 35 in Central Ohio and a handful of hires since the deal. MMI had nearly 70 before the acquisition.
Bonzo's tech lets loan officers and agents build promotional campaigns to reach potential clients by text, calls or emails, and book appointments for prospects who respond. It automates many of the tasks, but the user personalizes it with their own authentic voice, and can add gifs and video.
Known as a customer relationship management platform, it is now married with MMI's market data that analyzes top-performing lenders and real estate deals. Recruiters can use it to find bankers and lenders can use it to converse with agents and borrowers.
“Built around how consumers want to communicate today, Bonzo is a breath of fresh air in what can often feel like a stale mortgage technology landscape," MMI founder and CEO Ben Teerlink said in a news release. "We see tremendous potential in the potent combination."
Integrating the two platforms will benefit both and create a more complete product serving the mortgage industry, Teerlink said in a release.
How Bonzo started to rock and roll
Perkins was a loan officer turned marketer for a bank, and Miller was a rising loan officer when they met. Both had young families, were working long hours and were equally frustrated by "antiquated" tech, he said.
"Being a loan officer, you can make a lot of money but it takes a lot of sacrifice," Perkins said. "You constantly ... have to be having conversations to create leads."
They came up with the idea in 2018, taking it through workshop at Rev1 Ventures, and formed Bonzo in 2019 – Miller suggested the catchy name, not realizing it's the nickname of late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, Perkins' favorite.
They worked from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. with contract developers in Poland to build it, then went to their day jobs at a lender. They quit those jobs in March 2020 to devote full time to the startup.
Bonzo has grown by sales alone without outside investment, Perkins said. Traction started building in late 2021.
"The industry needed something new," Perkins said. "What we found was a desire and a need."
Jampedro, then a mortgage lender CEO and a customer, joked he would do sales for Bonzo. When his bank was acquired, he joined to lead the next stage of growth. He works from Milwaukee.
"He's a phenomenal leader," Perkins said. "We wanted somebody who has done this before."
Revenue, which is not disclosed, nearly quintupled in 2022 over the prior year and was on pace to quadruple this year, Perkins said. Bonzo has some 2,000 clients, ranging from individual bankers to small and medium mortgage lenders.
Based in Salt Lake City, MMI was No. 1,499 on the 2022 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies. Its 450 enterprise customers include 20 of the top 25 mortgage lenders.
"We were in that broker space, the smaller clientele; they were in the enterprise space we wanted to get into," Perkins said. "It made sense to merge both technologies together."
Talks started late last year.
Bonzo will keep growing in Central Ohio – it might need a larger office, he said.
"We can find amazing talent who are tech-savvy, that have experience at amazing companies," Perkins said.
Also, Rev1 and the rest of the region's entrepreneurial and tech community provided valuable mentors.
"I wouldn't have been able to help build Bonzo if it weren't for the people in Columbus who helped me," he said. "My prior history was in mortgages."
