London-based PropTech Habito has bagged £35m in a Series C round led by Augmentum Fintech, SBI Group and mojo.capital.
Existing investors Ribbit Capital, Atomico and Mosaic Ventures also participated in the raise. They previously backed the PropTech startup’s £18.5m Series B raise in 2017. The new round brings the total invested into Habito to £63m.
“This new investment in Habito will allow us to improve and innovate in these three areas: brokerage, lending and home-buying services,” a Habito spokesperson told FinTech Global.
“It will ensure that we can continue to digitise as much as possible of the mortgage journey to make time for quality person-to-person interactions, it will allow us to develop customer-centric residential mortgages and it will allow us to solve more of the homebuying pain points that buyers and sellers alike still have to endure. It will also help us to make a positive impact in our wider community.”
The round consisted of an earlier Series C equity raise and a more recent extension in the form of a convertible loan note, according to TechCrunch. The loan note was matched by the British Future Fund, which has been set up to help mitigate the Covid-19 crisis.
The deal has been in the works for some time as Habito confirmed back in August 2019 that it had raised £5m from Augmentum Fintech.
The news comes as Habito has been awarded a B Corp certification, meaning it now has a legal commitment to prioritise people and planet at the same level as profit.
To be accredited, companies must subject themselves to a thorough audit about its environmental impact, accountability and transparency. Other B Corp certified companies include Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia and WeTransfer.
“We’re proud to take our place in the global movement of companies using business as a force for good and especially proud to be the first UK mortgage company to become certified,” said Daniel Hegarty (pictured), CEO and founder of Habito.
“For us, it’s not just about revolutionising home ownership in the UK, but also about getting our own house in order and looking after our Habito community. B Corp recognises our intent to have a measurable impact on the world. This is only the beginning; it’s our pledge to do better in the world and we’re looking forward to making this intent a reality.”
The new round and the B Corp accreditation come after a busy year for Habito. Back in 2019 it began to offer direct lending via its range of mortgages.
In November, Habito unveiled a new tool to empower both its partners and homeowners through a new API. The new service would enable the startup’s partners to tap into Habito’s proprietary whole-of-market mortgage search algorithm and its mortgage calculation tools from inside their app. Homeowners were said to be able to use the tools to better understand how much they could save by remortgaging and switching deals.
In January, Habito launched Habito Plus, which TechCrunch noted as a significant step towards it launching its own end-to-end homebuying service. Through the service, buyers could get mortgage applications, conveyancing and surveys in one place.
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