- 1Figure says business-purpose home equity loans are now a meaningful portion of volume, about a year after launch.
- 2Business loan originators and brokers are new partners for the company.
- 3Figure officially launched an SMB pool on Democratized Prime in July.
Figure says business loan brokers are becoming a meaningful source of its home equity volume. CEO Michael Tannenbaum made the point on the company's Q2 earnings call.
Home equity funds small business deals
Tannenbaum said homeowners are using home equity to finance their small businesses. That is a new avenue for Figure, which is about a year into the effort, and it has already become a significant portion of volume. The company is now signing up partners that would historically have had no connection to mortgages: business loan originators, brokers and fintech SMB firms. He said they use Figure because it is simple, easy and inexpensive.
SMB pool on Democratized Prime
Figure also added an SMB loan pool to its Democratized Prime platform, initially made up mostly of loans originated by Credibly. Tannenbaum said partners originating business-purpose home equity loans are also creating opportunities for the platform, because the SMB market has little capital market standardization. The pool launched officially in July.
Figure's longer-term goal is to let lenders tap warehouse financing through Democratized Prime and then sell the loans they originate to investors via Figure Connect.
Source reporting: deBanked.
