Mortgage fintech Better to expand to Britain with Trussle acquisition

Better.com, the 5-year-old digital mortgage provider, is acquiring U.K-based digital mortgage broker Trussle Lab in its first overseas expansion move. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Why should we care?
Better, which is based in New York, is in the process of going public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in a $7.7B deal. International home finance is $3.6T of the more than $15T market for Better’s services, according to an investor presentation related to the upcoming SPAC merger with Aurora Acquisition. Trussle, which was founded in 2015, uses technology combined with human expertise to deliver its product offerings, which include mortgages and mortgage refinancing. It doesn’t charge borrowers for its services and instead levies a "procuration fee" from the lender. According to a statement from the companies, Trussle captures “critical data on customer demand, lender pricing and risk eligibility matrices that will provide valuable insights when analyzed using Better’s technology.” In turn, the companies suggest this will help Better identify underserved market segments and evaluate risk more effectively. “We researched the U.K. market and were surprised to see how we could make it so much better for consumers buying and financing a home for the first time. We found a kindred spirit in the team at Trussle who have developed a platform that we can work alongside to help every Briton own their own home,” said Vishal Garg, Better’s founder and CEO.