UK consumer lender Abound has made its first company acquisition with the purchase of Ahauz, a lendtech start-up specialising in shared equity mortgages. The financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
Abound, formerly known as Fintern, says it will use the deal to enter the UK mortgage market, which is currently populated by fellow fintech players including April, Interbridge, LiveMore, Perenna, and NerdWallet, among many others.
Ahauz works with housebuilders to help borrowers access the housing market through shared equity mortgages, where the lender contributes part of the property cost in exchange for a share of its future value.
Founded by João Rocha and Karthik Srivats in 2019, Ahauz had raised approximately £2.9 million in total funding before selling to Abound this week, with backers including Forward Partners.
Abound says that Ahauz will “continue to operate with its specialist focus” under the agreement, but will adopt the fintech’s AI technology to “assess affordability more accurately”.
The acquisition is intended to “offer home owners a suite of products providing improved access to borrowing and more flexible mortgage and loan options designed to reflect real household needs”, Abound continues.
While Abound has largely focused on consumer loans of up to £20,000, lending out more than £1 billion since 2020, the company has absorbed its first home owner product, the Rezide Equity Loan offering, through its acquisition of Ahauz.
The loan product, which carries a 4% interest rate, was first developed by Ahauz in partnership with asset manager QSix, and housebuilders Barratt Redrow and Persimmon, in October last year.
Abound has now gone live with Rezide Equity Loan through its platform as “a private version of the now-defunct UK Government-backed Help to Buy scheme”.
Source: https://www.fintechfutures.com/m-a/uk-lender-abound-acquires-ahauz-debuts-rezide-equity-loan
