Flagstar Bank and the FinTech Consortium revealed that fintech startups Home Lending Pal, Stavvy and Real Key are the latest initiates to the companies’ ongoing MortgageTech Accelerator program.
This marks the second round of startups to participate in the program since its launch in September 2019 – originally as an initiative by Flagstar to guide late-stage mortgage tech startups in an effort to evaluate the viability of future investments and partnerships.
“With the pandemic accelerating innovation in the mortgage industry, the timing could not be better for a program that introduces new paradigms and tech solutions for old processes,” said Courtney Thompson, head of default mortgage at Flagstar. “The outcomes of this program make our industry stronger and position Flagstar to continue to provide technology-enabled products to our customers.”
Home Lending Pal, based in Miami, uses chatbots, machine learning and blockchain to help first-time homebuyers through the home research and buying process.
Co-founded in 2017 by Bryan Young and Steven Better, the company cobbled together seed money from grants, capital investors and an additional donation from Young’s previous businesses in an effort to “decentralize the application process.”
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Flagstar will also back Boston-based Stavvy, a venture-backed financial tech company that designs platforms it claims manages security risk, eliminates fragmentation and increases speed and transparency in real estate transactions.
Stavvy was formed in 2018 when co-founders Kosta Ligris and Josh Feinblum discussed the idea of building technology to simplify the closing process. According to a November release from the company, Stavvy’s remote ink-signed (RIN) tech has been utilized in areas where remote online notarization (RON) has yet to be passed.
Finally, in the Bay Area, San Francisco based RealKey is a provider of digital mortgage technologies that enable bank and non-bank mortgage loan originators (MLOs) to streamline the mortgage processing experience for borrowers. The company’s cloud-based platform also automates the document collection, verification, and review process.
RealKey was founded in 2015 by Christopher Hussain, who claims to have been the top mortgage originator in the U.S. in 2010 and 2011. Hussain previously co-founded Sindeo, which was eventually acquired by Freedom Financial.
Prior the recent release of companies, Flagstar had taken under its wing Home Captain, Brace, and boost.ai which have since completed the program.
The curriculum offers access to mentors, ability to test products and solutions in a real-world controlled environment, access to potential customers and investors and accommodations for current and immediate needs.
Qualifying applicants may also receive seed capital funding through the FinTech Consortium’s global network.
The company said it chooses applicants based on several facets of the mortgage business, including mortgage origination, processing, marketing, servicing, compliance, sales, underwriting, credit and quality assessment. The company’s progress and prospect for growth is also included in the criteria.
The current program will end Feb. 4, 2021.