Launched in 2013, Sindeo opened up offices in San Francisco “to revolutionize the way people plan, shop and secure a mortgage.” Founded by CEO Nick Stamos and Ori Zohar, Sindeo quickly raised funding to fuel sector growth for their online lending platform including a $5 million Series A Round led by prominent Chinese Fintech investor RenRen. At the time of the investment, RenRen co-founder James Liu stated;
“Sindeo is one of the most promising players in the financial technology space because it has amassed a highly-talented team to propel the growth and innovation of its cutting-edge mortgage marketplace.”
Today, Sindeo is no more.
In a public announcement, Stamos explained;
“Four years ago, Ori and I set out to create a new type of mortgage company where technology makes things easier and puts people first. We hired incredible people to help us build this business and we grew rapidly.
But, startups are hard and simplifying the highly regulated, complex business of mortgages is even harder. I believed we had overcome the biggest hurdles, but unfortunately, we didn’t. Today, we made the difficult decision to wind down Sindeo.
I am simultaneously devastated, as well as incredibly proud. While Sindeo as a startup has failed, our people did not. As a matter of fact, we did what everyone said couldn’t be done.
- We built a place where people could shop and apply for a mortgage from a robust marketplace of over 1000 loan programs, with one single application and one credit check.
- We secured partnerships with some of the top real estate and consumer finance brands.
- We helped our clients save millions of dollars on their home loans.
- We built a people-centric brand, putting the needs of Sindeo’s clients first.
The accomplishment I am proudest of is our customer satisfaction scores. Sindeo’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) this year is 81, compared to an average of negative three from the top banks. Sindeo achieved Zappos and USAA level service. It was hard, really hard, but Sindeo was delivering on our mission.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. The majority of the staff and leadership team have had their jobs eliminated today. A very small team will be kept on for a short period of time to help our clients successfully close their loans that are already in process.
I am devastated for our employees, their families, our partners and our investors who believed in us, and worked so hard to build Sindeo. We have very talented people who need jobs today. Hire them. They are truly innovators and some of the smartest, most dedicated people I’ve ever worked with.
To everyone who has supported us, who believed in us and who stuck with us during the toughest of times, thank you. We are eternally grateful for your support, and I will never forget everything we did together at Sindeo.
Sindeo launched a mortgage comparison site in the fall of 2016 that was described as allowing users to complete a mortgage application online in just 5 minutes but apparently the initiative was too little, too late. While Sindeo is shuttering its doors, the online mortgage sector continues to be robust with online lenders like loanDepot, RocketMortgage LendingHome and SoFi continue to expand in this sector of finance.
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