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Better.com

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American mortgage origination firm

Better Home & Finance Holding Company
Company typePublic
Traded asNasdaq: BETR
IndustryFinancial services
FoundedFebruary 24, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-02-24)
FounderVishal Garg
Headquarters3 World Trade Center, New York City, US
Key people
ServicesBroker for mortgage origination, title insurance, and home insurance
RevenueDecrease $76 million (2023)
Net incomeIncrease -$536 million (2023)
Total assetsDecrease $905 million (2023)
Total equityIncrease $122 million (2023)
OwnerVishal Garg (95 million shares)
Activant Capital Group (61 million shares)
SoftBank Vision Fund (55 million shares)
Pine Brook Capital (49 million shares)
Novator Partners (48 million shares)
Ontario Pension Plan (29 million shares)
Riaz Valani (27 million shares)
L Catterton (23 million shares)
Websitebetter.com
Footnotes / references

Better Home & Finance Holding Company doing business as Better or Better.com, headquartered in New York City, provides mortgage origination and related services such as title insurance and home insurance online in the United States and United Kingdom.

Its largest source of business is an integrated relationship with Ally Financial, by which Better sells, processes, underwrites and closes Ally's mortgages, while Ally retains control of marketing, advertising and loan pricing. Better sells mortgages to approximately 30 secondary mortgage market investors, including Fannie Mae and Wells Fargo. The company secures lead generation from personal finance companies such as American Express, Credit Karma, and NerdWallet.

History

In February 2014, Vishal Garg founded the company after he and his wife had a negative experience obtaining a mortgage to buy their first home.

In 2016, the company launched Better Mortgage and was approved to be a Fannie Mae seller/servicer.

In April 2019, the company partnered with Ally Financial to operate its mortgage platform. The number of people from traditionally underrepresented groups buying homes through Better's mortgage lending platform increased significantly in 2019, a development that The New York Times suggested was linked to the company's digital processes and minimal reliance on human brokers.

In July 2021, Better acquired Trussle, a UK digital mortgage broker, for $9 million. In September 2021, Better acquired Property Partner, a London-based crowdfunding platform.

In May 2022, Harit Talwar was hired as chairperson.

In February 2023, the company announced a deal with Amazon whereby Amazon employees are able to pledge their stock as collateral for a loan to cover the down payment on a house purchase, albeit at a slightly higher interest rate.

In August 2023, the company became a public company via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company that included an investment from SoftBank Vision Fund; shares plummeted immediately after the merger.

In June 2022, a former senior executive at Better filed a lawsuit alleging that the company misled investors in its filings. After an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission found no issues, the complaint was withdrawn and the company won a judgment against the filer.

Layoffs and controversial comments by CEO

In December 2021, Garg laid off 900 employees by videoconference and locked their electronic devices from accessing company material. Garg also made comments to employees that were deemed "unruly", telling employees that he "hired the wrong people" and referring to employees as "slow," "dumb," and "embarrassing". After much criticism, Garg took approximately a month off, returning in January 2022.

On March 8, 2022, the company announced that an additional 3,000 people, or approximately one-third of employees, were laid off. Some employees learned of their layoff when they received severance pay, before Better.com told them they were to be laid off.

The company instituted another round of layoffs in April 2023; in this round, affected employees received individual calls, a severance package that included a minimum of 60 days compensation, up to three months of health coverage through COBRA, and assistance in their job searches.

In June 2022, three senior executives left the company.

In August 2022, a list of 250 or more US-based employees who were about to be terminated in another round of layoffs was leaked internally, leading to the termination of the employees who leaked the information. The company was accused of circumventing the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 by laying people off in groups of 249 employees, under the 250 minimum that triggers the act.

In June 2023, more employees were laid off, bringing total layoffs since 2021 to 4,000. The in-house real estate broker team was eliminated. The company had 150 agents as of 2021 and received 20% of agents' commissions in exchange for lead generation.

Awards and recognition

The company has received the following awards and recognition:

  • Ranked 1st on the Top Startups List for 2021 and 2020 by LinkedIn
  • Ranked 1st on the list of Best Small and Medium Workplaces in New York by Fortune
  • Ranked 15th on the Disruptor 50 2020 list by CNBC
  • Listed on the FinTech 50 for 2020 by Forbes

References

  1. "DEF 14A: Other definitive proxy statements". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 22, 2024.
  2. "Better Home & Finance Holding Company 2023 Form 10-K Annual Report". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 8, 2024.
  3. "Department of State: Division of Corporations". Delaware.
  4. Agostini Ferrer, Andrea (October 11, 2022). "Better Mortgage Review". Money.
  5. ^ CARTER, MATT (August 29, 2023). "Nearly half of Better's mortgage business now comes from partners". Bradley Inman.
  6. ^ Miller, Jennifer (September 18, 2020). "Is an Algorithm Less Racist Than a Loan Officer?". The New York Times.
  7. Howley, Kathleen (August 19, 2019). "Digital mortgage company Better.com closes $160 million in funding". HousingWire.
  8. ^ Aryan, Aashish; Mukul, Pranav (December 7, 2021). "Explained: Better.com, the mortgage company that fired over 900 employees over Zoom call". The Indian Express.
  9. "Ally Financial Partners with Better.com to Create End-to-End Digital Mortgage Experience" (Press release). PR Newswire. April 18, 2019.
  10. Jeans, David (November 20, 2020). "Mortgages, Fraud Claims And 'Dumb Dolphins': A Tangled Past Haunts Better.com CEO Vishal Garg". Forbes.
  11. de León, Riley (July 12, 2021). "Digital mortgage lender Better acquiring Goldman Sachs-backed fintech ahead of public listing". CNBC.
  12. Lawler, Ryan (September 9, 2021). "Better.com acquires UK-based Property Partner ahead of SPAC close". TechCrunch.
  13. Reyes, Max (May 9, 2022). "Better Hires Ex-Goldman Partner Talwar With Eyes on Listing". Bloomberg News.
  14. Mattioli, Dana (February 28, 2023). "Amazon Employees Will Be Able to Use Stock as Collateral for Home Loans". The Wall Street Journal.
  15. ^ "Better Home & Finance Announces Closing of Business Combination" (Press release). Business Wire. August 23, 2023.
  16. Azevedo, Mary Ann; Hall, Christine (August 27, 2023). "Better.com's public market debut was Miserable.com". TechCrunch.
  17. Carter, Matt (August 23, 2023). "After setbacks, Better goes public with plan to scale 'greater heights'". Bradley Inman.
  18. Pisani, Joseph (July 14, 2022). "SEC Probes Better.com After Lawsuit Alleges Company Misled Investors". The Wall Street Journal.
  19. Nunes, Flavia (May 8, 2024). "Former top executive withdraws lawsuit against Better.com and its founder". HousingWire.
  20. Maruf, Ramishah (December 5, 2021). "Better.com CEO fires 900 employees over Zoom". CNN.
  21. Timmins, Beth (December 7, 2021). "Vishal Garg: US boss fires 900 employees over Zoom". BBC News.
  22. Tan, Kwan Wei Kevin (August 24, 2023). "CEO who fired hundreds on Zoom call say he's worked hard to be kinder". Business Insider.
  23. Graziosi, Graig (December 6, 2021). "Who is Vishal Garg, the CEO that fired 900 employees over Zoom call?". The Independent. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021.
  24. Jeans, David. "Better.com CEO Who Fired 900 People On Zoom Is Struggling To Keep His Company Afloat". Forbes.
  25. MATHEWS, JESSICA (December 6, 2021). "Better.com's morale and SPAC merger success in question after CEO's unruly comments". Fortune.
  26. Goldberg, Emma (December 10, 2021). "Better.com's C.E.O. is 'taking time off' after firing 900 workers over Zoom". The New York Times.
  27. Goldberg, Emma (January 18, 2022). "Better.com's founder returns as C.E.O. after firing 900 workers on Zoom". The New York Times.
  28. Kirsch, Noah (January 18, 2022). "He's Baaaack! Ax-Wielding Better.com Founder Returns as CEO". The Daily Beast.
  29. Valinsky, Jordan (March 8, 2022). "Better, after firing 900 employees over Zoom, is laying off 3,000 more workers". CNN.
  30. Goldberg, Emma (March 8, 2022). "Better.com, a mortgage lender and early pandemic winner, announces more layoffs. The company will let go more than 3,000 employees three months after gaining notoriety for firing 900 workers in a Zoom call". The New York Times.
  31. Azevedo, Mary Ann (March 8, 2022). "Better.com employees learned of layoffs when severance checks appeared in payroll app". TechCrunch.
  32. Goldberg, Emma (April 19, 2022). "Better.com announces more layoffs, citing mortgage market turbulence". The New York Times.
  33. Azevedo, Mary Ann (June 21, 2022). "Better.com loses three more senior executives, including SVP and VP of sales". TechCrunch.
  34. Azevedo, Mary Ann (August 25, 2022). "Better.com conducts fourth layoff in less than 9 months". TechCrunch.
  35. Azevedo, Mary Ann; Hall, Christine (September 28, 2022). "Inside the human cost of Better.com's brutal layoffs". TechCrunch.
  36. "Better.com CEO Vishal Garg announces fresh round of layoffs". Mint. June 10, 2023.
  37. Azevedo, Mary Ann (June 9, 2023). "Better.com lays off real estate team and shutters business unit". TechCrunch.
  38. CARTER, MATT (June 8, 2023). "Better.com lays off in-house real estate agents nationwide". Bradley Inman.
  39. "Another round of Better.com layoffs hits in-house agents". The Real Deal. June 8, 2023.
  40. Hempel, Jessi (September 22, 2020). "LinkedIn Top Startups 2020: The 50 U.S. companies on the rise". LinkedIn.
  41. "15. Better.com". CNBC. June 16, 2020.
  42. "Better Mortgage". Forbes.

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