Home Lending Pal Inc. announced it bought fellow Orlando real estate tech startup Horizons to help develop a mobile app for its mortgage adviser platform, as well as tapping into resources from International Business Machines Corp. (better known as IBM) to build out its product.
The deadline to finish the initial version of the app comes roughly a month later on Aug. 30, co-founder and CEO Bryan Young told Orlando Inno.
“The deadline is ambitious, but doable,” added Horizons co-founder Chad Maycumber, who now serves as Home Lending Pal’s vice president of product.
Home Lending Pal aims to finish its mobile app quickly, which is why it purchased Horizons for an undisclosed sum and brought in Maycumber and fellow Horizons co-founder Kyle Walsh, now Home Lending Pal’s vice president of engineering. The pair previously built an app at Horizons that simplified the house shopping process for first-time buyers.
When finished, the mobile app will expand the reach of the company’s platform, which simulates underwriting to help potential homebuyers figure out which home loans they can afford, compare the likelihood of approval by different lenders and discover ways to save on their closing costs. Users are guided through the process by a virtual assistant named Kev, who walks users through the process, shows homes they can afford in their preferred neighborhoods and answers voice or text inquiries.
The acquisition of Horizons, along with help from partner IBM and support from a venture firm, will aid Home Lending Pal in launching a mobile app and reaching more customers even as the 5-year-old startup faces challenges closing its next investment round.
The Horizons co-founders are bringing fresh eyes to the project and finding ways to improve the Home Lending Pal app’s onboarding process, Walsh said. For example, Maycumber said they’re making changes to “walk” the user into the process. Home Lending Pal needs certain financial data from the user, but it won’t ask for it all up front before the user is comfortable with the app or knows how it works, Maycumber said.
In addition, IBM (NYSE: IBM) is providing Home Lending Pal with valuable resources, including its own data scientists and engineers who can help the Orlando-based firm as it builds out its product. Home Lending Pal is a graduate of the New York-based tech giant’s Hyper Protect Accelerator program for startups.
Of course, Home Lending Pal uses IBM Watson Studio and IBM Watson Assistant artificial intelligence tech in its platform tech, which opens up a two-way street of benefits for IBM and startup partners like Home Lending Pal, IBM Ecosystem Manager Kate Woolley told Orlando Inno. “That pulls IBM into the marketplace and allows us to reach more people.”
Meanwhile, the company’s hunting for the next round of funding to sustain its operations continues. Home Lending Pal has raised more than $3.5 million since its launch, but the business ran into trouble this year securing the investors and funds it needs for a much larger Series A round. Young previously told Orlando Inno he felt he and co-founder Steven Better faced undue scrutiny from investors because the entrepreneurs are not white.
However, it has landed support from a new investor: Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Brown Venture Group LLC, a venture capital firm for startups run by Black, Latino and Indigenous entrepreneurs. The firm is supporting Home Lending Pal's growth by connecting it to banks and other important partners, Young said.
Brown Venture Group was impressed by Home Lending Pal’s ability to prove there’s a market for its product and navigate regulatory concerns so far on a “shoestring budget,” Managing Partner Paul Campbell said in a prepared statement. “The buy-in from C-suite level executives in the industry is a tell-tale sign HLP is well on its way to deliver a differentiated product at scale to the market to help families that need it most.”
User growth and engagement is strong for Home Lending Pal, and the launch of the app at the end of August is expected to set up a big month, said Better, chief of operations. “We’re preparing for a really strong September.”
Sign up here for The Beat, Orlando Inno’s free newsletter. And be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
