Techlend are a new name on the non-bank scene, and for the broker channel, they bring a unique proposition: one of their two founders is still an active mortgage broker.
The Sydney-based non-bank brings CEO Aaron Bassin and his co-founder, Nick Jacobs, who is still at the coalface of the mortgage broking market, delivering insights into how the start-up can best find advantages in the competitive lender space.
“The majority of my time is on the broking side,” he told Australian Broker. “I’m a quasi-advisor who is giving assistance. Techlend, and (founder) Aaron, who is the brains behind it all.”
“What we ran into from a problematic standpoint was how the banks are assessing these deals, and I give Aaron an understanding of the market, how we can disrupt it and how it can be improved. That’s my input on the Techlend side.”
His input is founded on solving the problems that only a broker can know, so that Techlend can offer a superior service to customers.
“It’s really just the pain points,” said Jacobs. “What can we improve on? What can lenders improve on? What niche products are there in the market that banks aren’t looking at?”
“There’s a variety of different aspects in the whole process, and I feel like the whole process is what is flawed. You have good borrowers with strong asset submissions, and banks won’t even look at them.”
Techlend are focussing on bridging loans, which can help borrowers to get ahead on buying their home before they have finalised the sale of their current property.
“We have two products, a commercial facility up to two years, and a bridging product tailored to downsizers or relocations, which is with no residual debt,” Jacobs explained.
“What we found was that, when we had customers that didn’t have a residual liability after selling their existing home, the service level that was provided by brokers and banks was essentially null and void. Because there was no economic benefit for the broker or bank. We’re trying to tackle that market.”
