Figure Technologies, the blockchain lending startup co-founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, grew throughout its first year of business last year.
The company entered the home equity lending market first, when it rolled out its signature product, Figure Home Equity, which is a hybrid between a traditional home equity loan and a HELOC that allows homeowners to borrow from their home equity.
Then the company went after the reverse mortgage market and unveiled a new program that it called an alternative to reverse mortgages. The program, called Figure Home Advantage, sees the company buy a property outright from a homeowner, who then rents the house back from Figure for as long as they want to.
And now, the company will have some new funding to continue its expansion. Figure announced this week that it raised $65 million in its Series B equity funding.
According to the company, the latest funding round brings the company’s total equity funding to more than $120 million in just its second year of operating.
The funding round was led by RPM Ventures and partners at DST Global, with participation from investors Ribbit Capital, DCM, DCG, Nimble Ventures, Morgan Creek, and others.
Cagney, who left SoFi in 2017 after reports emerged about the alleged toxic culture at the online lender, said that Figure is “encouraged” by the company’s first-year results and is looking forward to growing thanks to the new funding.
“We are encouraged by what we’ve accomplished in our first year, and this investment validates Figure’s market potential," Cagney, who serves as Figure’s CEO, said.
“We launched the fastest HELOC in the market, and we originate, finance and sell every one of our loans on the Provenance blockchain, an industry first,” Cagney continued. “From the diversity of our founding team to our alignment with our members’ financial success, we believe we’re building a different — and better — kind of technology company.”
As Cagney noted, the company built and deployed its own blockchain system, which it calls Provenance. The company uses the blockchain for all of its lending activities, which has its advantages, according to the company.
This is how Figure describes it:
The company leverages the security, efficiencies and cost advantage of blockchain for loan origination, financing and sales and has a diverse set of funds, banks and dealers active on Provenance today.
According to the company, Figure was the first loan originator on Provenance, but the company says that several other originators plan to use the platform by the middle of this year.
The company also said that additional use cases, such as investment funds on blockchain, are also planned for this year.
Beyond that, the company plans to expand its Figure Home Advantage reverse mortgage alternative, which is currently being rolled out in Texas, Illinois, and Nevada, and take the program nationwide this year.
