loanDepot announced on Monday the launch of its proprietary digital lending platform, mello, which is part of an $80 million investment in technology over the last 18 months. According to the online lender, the new platform is an end-to-end technology solution designed to scale with the business as America’s lender expands its product categories outside of home lending, its network as a service provider of credit-related products, and its joint venture partnerships.
loanDepot reports that the first three proprietary technology solutions that compromise its digital lending platform include an intuitive web-based consumer portal, a state-of-the-art mobile point of sale system, and a fully digital mortgage loan application experience. loanDepot Chairman and CEO, Anthony Hsieh, stated:
“Technology advancements have revolutionized the way we work and live, yet the mortgage industry has largely remained devoid of modernization. As a profitable and growing lender, we’re in a unique position to invest aggressively in developing our own advanced technology. This philosophy of building our own technology positions us to evaluate market conditions as digital disruption continues to evolve the consumer experience. It gives us the optionality to define and redefine coverage points unknown to us today, and quickly design solutions for them. We are very committed to innovation through technology as a core basis of our business strategy and competitive advantage.”
Hsieh then noted:
“It’s still very early within our industry. The digital disruption that changed the consumer experience in online books, home entertainment and consumer goods is just now impacting financial services. Similar to category leaders in those industries, we can’t predict what opportunities will develop within financial services. But by leveraging our deep experience in loan origination, and combining it with the best product and technology talent available, we are building a tech ecosystem that enables us to quickly venture into ancillary services and markets unknown to us today. As a result, we have the power and flexibility to shape and define our journey as we advance toward our ultimate position as a nationally known household brand.”
Dominick Marchetti, chief technology officer at loanDepot, also commented:
“Ultimately, the complexities of the technology we’ve engineered to operate silently in the background make the front-end experience easier, faster and with little to no friction for the user. The reality is that when experienced loan officers use the best technology available to help the consumer access credit, it has the opportunity to change the industry for the better. That’s powerful.”
Tim Von Kaenel, chief product officer at loanDepot, added:
“We invested considerable time working in the field with hundreds of loan officers to design a suite of integrated solutions forming mello™ which is a web-based tech ecosystem to help loan officers build their business and consumers navigate the loan process. The work we’re doing at loanDepot in building and leveraging proprietary technology to offer consumers mortgage and nonmortgage loan products across all of our business channels and licensed loan officers nationwide is exciting and game changing.”
