06 Sep 2017

U.K-based mortgage broker Habito raise 18.5 million pounds or $24 million through series B funding led by the venture capital Atomico.

The online chatbot created by Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom plans to use the new investment to integrate its technology with retail banks and high street lenders to offer real time mortgage approvals. It plans to spread across home and life insurance spectrum.

Nine months back, Habito, the algorithm powered free online mortgage broker, had closed its series A funding of 5.5 million pounds. The series A was was led by Ribbit Capital, participated by Mosaic Ventures. The initial investors in the company included Taavet Hinrikus, CEO of TransferWise, Samir Desai, founder of Funding Circle, Paul Forster of of Indeed and Yuri Milner.

The startup was launched in April 2016 and processed more than 70 million in mortgage application.

Mortgage lending and housing market have been on a revival path in the U.K. Mortgage approval for home purchases increased to 68,689 in July compared to 65,318 in June. The total mortgage lending value reached 21.2 billion pounds in July.

Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX