Layoffs, a launch, key hires and more
This week, mortgage fintech Tomo announced plans to layoff nearly a third of its workforce to preserve cash and ride out the current economic cycle. Setpoint, a startup with a “purpose-built” real estate technology platform, is emerging from stealth mode. Sagent and Consolidated Analytics are partnering to streamline order management and automate valuation process for default servicers. HarborOne Bancorp added a former Harvard University chief information officer to its board of directors. Floify made some key hires.
Tomo
Tomo, a mortgage fintech, has laid off nearly a third of its workforce, according to multiple media reports, blaming the decision on trends in the current economic cycle including rising interest rates and less mortgage volume.
News of the layoffs come just a few months after Tomo raised a $40 million series A financing round.
CEO and co-founder Greg Schwartz addressed the news in a lengthy LinkedIn posting on May 31.
Read more: Mortgage tech news roundup: May 27
“The reason we are taking such strong measures is to ensure Tomo has enough of a runway for the business to succeed in its mission,” Schwartz explained in the posting. “While we explicitly don’t offer refinance mortgages because of the risky boom and bust cycle, we’ve still been impacted by the rapid rise in interest rates that has reduced purchase mortgage margins.”
Schwartz added that venture capital investment volatility is another reason the company decided to slash employment.
“Venture capital is also pulling back in this chaotic economic environment, and thus, we must map out a stable budget that will rely on less capital for longer,” he said.
Setpoint
Setpoint, a start-up with a “purpose-built” real estate technology platform, is emerging from stealth mode.
The New York-based company launched only in 2021, with a pitch that its capital and technology platform will help proptech companies and other lending organizations offer “next-generation” options to buy and sell a home to their customers.
It is designed, in part, to help average Americans identify faster, more competitive purchase options and compete against all cash investors.
Proptech startups Homeward, Flyhomes, Reali and Houwzer are among customers of the platform, the company said, which is trending toward enabling 25,000 home transactions in 2022.
Specifically, the platform is built with streamlined workflow tools that accelerate document collection and verification, automate manual closing processes and boost transaction thruput while reducing overhead. In addition, the company is lending $615 million in bridge capital (from debt financing) to enable proptech companies to purchase or finance properties on behalf of their customers, allowing clients of their customers to buy with cash or buy before they sell their homes.
Sagent
Sagent and Consolidated Analytics are partnering to streamline order management and automate valuation process for default servicers.
Sagent is a fintech company focused on modernizing mortgage and consumer loan servicing for banks and lenders. Consolidated Analytics is centered around a mortgage services platform for clients in mortgage lending, servicing and capital markets.
The partnership will automate valuation services for default servicing through an integration into TEMPO, Sagent’s default management platform.
Chris McLain, division president for Valuations at Consolidated Analytics, explained in prepared remarks that TEMPO users will be able to work with Consolidated Analytics through a streamlined workflow designed to make the valuation process more efficient. Ultimately, the idea is this will reduce costs for clients.
“This integration allows for order placement and delivery partnered with real-time communication and automated tracking through the valuation process,” he said.
HarborOne Bancorp
Anne Margulies, a technology innovator and former chief information officer of Harvard University, is joining the board of directors of HarborOne Bancorp, the holding company for HarborOne Bank in Massachusetts.
In her new role at HarborOne, she is expected to help steer the bank in the new digital banking era with her expertise in information technology and security, and her deep experience in strategic planning and execution.
Read next: Porch Group announces board of directors shake-up
Margulies served as CIO at Harvard from 2010 to 2021, where she managed information technology strategies, plans and policies designed to serve all the University schools.
Before that, she served from 2002 to 2007 as the founding executive director of MIT OpenCourseWare, an initiative that allowed access to large parts of the MIT curriculum free of charge. She also was assistant secretary for Information Technology and CIO for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2010.
Floify
Floify, a digital mortgage automation/point-of-sale platform and Porch Group subsidiary, hired Sofia Rossato as president and general manager, and Dan Goldman as VP of sales.
Rossato was previously CEO of SnapEngage, an omnichannel chat platform, with more than 20 years of leadership experience at other companies. Before Floify, Goldman was senior vice president of sales at First Integrity Mortgage Services. He brings with him more than 20 years of executive sales experience.
Floify’s technology is designed to provide a secure application, communication and document portal between lenders, borrowers, referral partners and other mortgage stakeholders.
