Credit Karma Buys Online Mortgage Company

Approved, the online mortgage platform company, announced Thursday (Aug. 16) in a blog post that it has been acquired Credit Karma.

In a blog post, Approved Chief Executive and Founder Andy Taylor said that with the acquisition, Credit Karma is gearing up to build a consumer-facing digital mortgage platform for its 80 million members.

“We started Approved with a vision that borrowers could visit an open house not having even talked with a lender, find the home of their dreams and get fully pre-qualified on their mobile device before a listing agent offered them a business card. After all, why should they have a better customer experience buying a pair of shoes than spending $500k+ (or more) on a home they’ll own their whole life?” wrote Taylor. “After nearly $5 billion in loan originations, our technology has shown major improvements in the time to get a loan, transparency in the process and ease of loan application and doc collection.”

According to Taylor, joining forces with Credit Karma gives Approved the resources and scale to grow its business and reach more homebuyers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In an interview, Credit Karma Chief Product Officer Nikhyl Singhal said getting into mortgages is a natural next step. “As we’ve expanded, you’ve seen us move from credit cards as a way to help members with that part of their life to first personal loans to auto — meaning auto loans, auto insurance,” he said. “Today, we’re really talking more publicly about mortgage. Mortgage being, for many of our members, the most important financial decision they’ll make.”

What’s more, Singhal pointed out in the report that 80 percent of Credit Karma members are active prior to getting a mortgage, providing an opportunity for the two companies. “The acquisition is just the continuing effort of saying, ‘look, we’re serious about taking our scale and being that trusted destination for our members as it relates to helping them with their mortgage,” the executive said.