Acre – a one-click mortgage intermediaries platform – announced it has raised £6.5 million in investment to grow its tech platform and disrupt the process of buying a home. The McPike Global Family Office (MGFO) has joined returning investors Aviva and Founders Factory to provide new funds to further Acre’s ambition to digitize the homebuying journey for buying and delivering new and innovative ways to support brokers’ businesses.
This funding round follows a successful 2022 – which saw the all-in-one intermediaries platform grow to more than 1300 users, representing over £10 billion in annual mortgage volume, a 10 times growth over the year. And the platform signed its first protection-only firm called Intrinsic House and saw a number of the country’s fastest-growing networks including Cornerstone Finance Group and Beneficial Network join the Acre ecosystem. The integrations with 5 lenders also went live, including Santander and TSB.
After this investment, Acre will continue its rapid customer growth and pursue its vision of changing the way people buy homes. And Acre plans to roll out new partnerships with lenders and insurers that help brokers recommend and apply for the right financial products and services as efficiently as possible.
Plus Acre believes that in order to deliver on this vision, client data, and identity needs to be entered and verified once and shared across the whole home buying process. And the company’s ongoing evolution comes during a time when lending is increasingly complex due to the challenging economic climate, and brokers’ increased responsibility for outcomes for their customers.
This investment follows Acre’s earlier £5 million fundraise in 2019 – which was led by Aviva and Sesame Bankhall Group (SBG) and followed its spin-out from Founders Factory’s venture studio.
KEY QUOTES:
“We pride ourselves on being at the forefront of innovation in financial advice, delivering a new, modern approach that simplifies the advice journey for brokers and delivers on the needs of clients. This latest fundraise demonstrates our strength and commitment to the market and supercharges our ambitions as the tech platform of choice for brokers.”
“For many homebuyers, the financial turmoil of last year led to a greater appreciation of mortgage brokers and this trend is continuing into 2023. We give brokers the right tools, data and insight at the click of a button, so that they can excel at delivering speedy, efficient advice that meets the individual requirements of each case in a dynamic market.”
— Justus Brown, CEO and founder of Acre
“Acre represents the future of a tech-led mortgage market. Aviva Ventures are delighted to continue to support Justus and his team on Acre’s journey to deliver much needed tech innovation that benefits homebuyers, brokers and lenders.”
— Ant Barker, Head of Venture Investments & Partnerships at Aviva
“We are excited to further our partnerships with Founders Factory and Aviva, and believe Acre is truly an all-encompassing innovative platform that is ripe to take advantage of the quickly evolving UK mortgage market. Justus is a phenomenal operator and has positioned Acre to scale rapidly while demonstrating its significant market disruption capabilities. Grateful for the opportunity to be a part of leading the charge in the technology revolution within the UK mortgage market.”
— Drew Colaiezzi, private investments manager with MGFO
