American Express Ventures Leads Better Mortgage’s $70 Million Series C Funding Round

Digital mortgage lender Better Mortgage announced this week that it raised $70 million in its Series C funding round. American Express Ventures, the financial institution’s strategic investment group, led the funding round. The Healthcare group of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) as well as existing investors Goldman Sachs, Kleiner Perkins and Pine Brook also participated. Better Mortgage plans to use the new capital to support its continued growth and boost investment in its technology platform.

Better Mortgage’s latest successful round of funding follows a record year of performance in which the digital mortgage lender tripled its loan originations to $1.3 billion and doubled its footprint to serve over half of the United States. Looking forward, Better Mortgage seeks to continue serving its customers through its transparent and technology-driven process that allows for faster closing times and lower mortgage rates.

Lindsay Fitzgerald, managing director of American Express Ventures, noted that Better Mortgage has helped its customers navigate one of life’s biggest financial events: “By building a mortgage platform to be fully digital from the ground up, Better Mortgage has reduced the complexity around the homebuying process. We’re excited to support Better Mortgage’s next phase of growth.”

American Express Ventures was first launched in November 2011 with an initial $100 million in capital as an initiative to make strategic investments in the digital commerce sector. The firm focuses on both domestic and international fintech start-ups and is stage-agnostic past the initial seed round.

As the credit card company’s venture capital arm, American Express Ventures places an emphasis on investing in companies that can help speed up American Express’ digital transformation with particular interest in mobile payments, lending, marketplaces, loyalty and lifestyle services. The firm also focuses on companies that provide technology-based B2B services and that utilize technology in ways that could improve American Express’ core capabilities such as customer acquisition, security, fraud detection, servicing, underwriting and data analytics.

In the past year, American Express Ventures has also made investments in Stripe, Instacart, Bill.com, Shoprunner, MobiKwik, Albert, Freebird, Capillary Technologies and Cloud Elements.