Digital lender Better.com will finally become
The debut comes nearly two weeks after shareholders at special purpose acquisition company Aurora Acquisition Corp. voted to combine with the mortgage player. The
"We're really excited to be taking the company public at a time that's obviously a really bad time for the mortgage industry," said Vishal Garg, founder and CEO of Better, and director of Better Home & Finance. "But $550 million of additional capital will position us to be a company that can both survive this downturn but also thrive."
The firm's sponsors, affiliates of SoftBank and NaMa Capital, formerly known as Novator Capital, will provide approximately $565 million in combined capital infusions at the time Better goes public. The funds will rejuvenate the firm which has endured both
The company ended last year with just 1,300 team members, a fraction of its 10,400 headcount in 2020, and is reeling from an $889 million loss in 2022, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. It's also facing two lawsuits, including one
Garg, who
The business in the past 20 months undertook two internal cultural reviews,
In an interview with National Mortgage News, Garg, Chairman Harit Talwar and Head of Financial Innovation Nneka Ukpai described how they kept the merger intact, how Better will pivot to meet the market and how it plans to disrupt the industry.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.