Mortgage broker fintech Effi raises $1.2 million seed round

Fintech startup Effi has raised $1.2 million in seed funding as part of its push to become Australia’s leading mortgage broker platform.   

The round was led by Australian seed investment group Investible, US-based Hustle Fund and several mortgage industry leaders and brokers. 

Mandeep Sodhi, founder and CEO of the AI-powered company said he’s now looking to expand both nationally and overseas. 

“It’s come at the perfect time for Effi. We recently launched the full version of the platform and partnered with RateCity to give our brokers an even bigger boost for their profiles and grow their brand,” he said.

“The funding boost will enable us to double down on our partnership efforts and ramp up product development as we strive to address the most common issues plaguing the mortgage broking process.”  

Sodhi launched his startup in June last year and said investors saw Effi’s potential as a single, unified platform for brokers to manage client opportunities.

He said broker market share was expected to reach 70% (it’s currently 60%) as buyers require more support on which lender to apply with and avoid rejection. 

Brokers who took part in Effi’s pilot program last year saw their conversion rate improve to double digits, from a simple enquiry to a loan settlement. Sodhi said the current response rate from cold leads on Effi sits above 80% due to the platform’s SMS bot.

Those numbers impressed Daniel Veytsblit, Investment Director at Investible, who said Effi brings a new level of data-driven intelligence and efficiency to the mortgage broking industry.

“The platform solves two of the great pain-points for brokers, lead generation and efficiency. As early investors we are excited to see the growth of the platform in the mortgage industry and adjacent lending segments,” he said. 

The a longer runway, Sodhi is now focused on helping brokers make great inroads into a mortgage market with more than 5000 products available at a time when the big banks are pushing to cut them out of the deal.

“Our main goal is to keep innovating the platform to make it as seamless and helpful for brokers as possible. I believe this year we are in good stead to achieve this goal,” he said.