Operating fintech Haven raises $8 million in funding

Haven, a fintech services platform, raised $8 million in Series A funding, according to a press release published this week.

The financing was led by Fifth Wall with participation from Fidelity National Financial, RWT Horizons and 1Sharpe Ventures.

The round brings total funding to date to $13.5 million and includes existing investors Conversion Capital, BoxGroup, AME Cloud Ventures and Operator Partners. The capital will be used for hiring and to speed up product development.

The premise of the platform, which was founded in 2020, is to give service providers the upper hand in engaging with borrowers and cross-selling products.

“We were fascinated [that servicers in theory] need to build relationships with homeowners, and yet they struggle to achieve that,” said Jonathan Chao, CEO of Haven. “What was holding them back was the inability to bring the portal experience to users in a way that immediately provides value to the homeowner . .”

The software, which can be white-labeled and integrated with a service provider’s platform, is a kind of marketplace that allows homeowners to pay for their mortgage and buy other home services. Currently, the Brooklyn-based company has over 800,000 users.

“We work with the servicer and the sub-servicer to bring a platform together where a homeowner engages over a period of seven years on average,” Chao said. “Our platform is designed to bring in the other aspects that a homeowner is going to need, so in the future it will be the one place for homeowners to come for loans, real estate, servicing and home services.”

So far, six undisclosed officials have partnered with the platform, and Chao mentioned that five partners have been brought in from home insurance and life insurance. The company will also add non-financial products to their platform in the near future.

Companies that collaborate with the platform do not have to pay to participate.

“Instead of asking for a huge upfront contract [from partners]what we do is agree that we’re going to generate the revenue first, and that’s when we take a cut,” Chao said. “It’s actually very low risk for these partners to come on board and customers to sign with us.

And in contrast to other suppliers, the downturn in the market may actually work to the supplier’s advantage.

“Service is countercyclical where the intrinsic value of service is currently going up,” Chao said. “More and more capital is flowing into the MSR market, and that is also increasing the price and value.”

“Competition for service has grown, and the need these people have to unlock this hidden value in their service portfolio has also increased,” Chao said. “We think that’s going to be the main focus over the next year or two.”