Acre, a London-based digital mortgage startup, raises £6.5M to revolutionize the process of buying homes

Acre, a London-based tech startup and provider of an all-in-one mortgage and protection platform, has closed £6.5 million ($8 million) in funding to grow its tech platform to make home-buying quicker and easier for buyers, brokers, insurers, and lenders.

The round was led by investment from The McPike Global Family Office (MGFO), the family office of Harold McPike, with participation from existing investors Aviva and Founders Factory. Acre will use the new capital infusion to further its ambition to digitize the homebuying journey to buying and delivering new, innovative ways to support brokers’ businesses.

Today’s funding follows Acre’s earlier £5 million fundraise in 2019, which was led by Aviva and Sesame Bankhall Group (SBG), and followed its spin-out from Founders Factory’s venture studio. The funding also comes after a successful 2022, which saw the all-in-one intermediaries platform grow to over 1300 users, representing over £10 billion in annual mortgage volume, a 10x growth over the year.

The platform signed its first protection-only firm, Intrinsic House, and saw a number of the country’s fastest-growing networks, including Cornerstone Finance Group and Beneficial Network, join the Acre ecosystem. Integrations with five lenders also went live, including Santander and TSB.

Acre was born out of the Founders Factory incubator (in cooperation with Aviva), Acre’s broker platform uses innovative blockchain technology to put detailed consumer and property data at the heart of getting a mortgage.

In a statement Acre founder and CEO Justus Brown said, “We pride ourselves on being at the forefront of innovation in financial advice, delivering a new, modern approach that simplifies the advice journey for brokers and delivers on the needs of clients. This latest fundraise demonstrates our strength and commitment to the market and supercharges our ambitions as the tech platform of choice for brokers.”

Brown added: “For many homebuyers, the financial turmoil of last year led to a greater appreciation of mortgage brokers, and this trend is continuing into 2023. We give brokers the right tools, data, and insight at the click of a button, so that they can excel at delivering speedy, efficient advice that meets the individual requirements of each case in a dynamic market.”

Ant Barker, Head of Venture Investments & Partnerships at Aviva said: “Acre represents the future of a tech-led mortgage market. Aviva Ventures are delighted to continue to support Justus and his team on Acre’s journey to deliver much-needed tech innovation that benefits home buyers, brokers, and lenders”

Drew Colaiezzi, private investments manager with MGFO added: “We are excited to further our partnerships with Founders Factory and Aviva, and believe Acre is truly an all-encompassing innovative platform that is ripe to take advantage of the quickly evolving UK mortgage market. Justus is a phenomenal operator and has positioned Acre to scale rapidly while demonstrating its significant market disruption capabilities. Grateful for the opportunity to be a part of leading the charge in the technology revolution within the UK mortgage market.”