Member Article

Online mortgage broker Hey Habito raises £5.5m Series A

Hey Habito, the London-based mortgage broker, has announced the closure of its seven-figure Series A round which included participation from some of the capital’s most recognisable tech founders.

The startup said it has raised £5.5m in a round led by Silicon Valley’s Ribbit Capital, along with contribution from current investor Mosaic Ventures and a group of individual investors that includes Funding Circle Co-Founder Samir Desai and Transferwise chief Taavet Hinrikus.

Providing an entirely online mortgage brokerage service, Hey Habito offers users the ability to quickly search through mortgage quotes from over 60 lenders in seconds, compared to the 11-12 lenders that traditional brokers commonly canvass.

Since its launch in April last year, the company claims it has helped over 20,000 people complete over £50m-worth of mortgage applications, and has also developed an AI-powered mortgage advice chatbot which it says can halve the amount of time it spends on each case.

Following the latest funding, which takes total investment in the Whitechapel-headquartered business to £8.2m, Founder Daniel Hegarty, said: “The amazing response we’ve received from customers has proved what we always knew - there’s a huge opportunity to make the experience of getting a mortgage simpler, more transparent and a lot less painful.

“The industry has suffered from a lack of innovation for decades and the outdated, paper-based manual processes aren’t fit for 21st century homeowners.

“Our technology empowers people to take control of their personal finances and protect themselves against getting or staying on the wrong mortgage. We’re excited to continue to build our business and deliver new services that provide Britons with the best mortgage experience possible.”

Hey Habito will now look to develop and invest in its machine learning tech which will help to expand its product range, including real-time mortgage approvals and automatically alerting users when better value mortgage deals appear.