Stewart acquires digital mortgage technology company Cloudvirga

Stewart Information Services is adding to the collection of digital mortgage companies it has acquired in the past year-and-a-half, purchasing Cloudvirga at an undisclosed price.

Cloudvirga offers point-of-sale technology to both retail and wholesale mortgage bankers. Current CEO Kyle Kamrooz was a co-founder of the company in 2016.

In 2018, Cloudvirga rolled out a product that allowed loan officers to submit applications to both Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter and Freddie Mac's Loan Product Advisor at the same time with a single click.

"Cloudvirga's platform will accelerate and complement our digital capabilities and enhance our ability to provide customers with end-to-end mortgage and real estate solutions and services, adding to newly acquired capabilities such as RON, a notary network and valuation services," a Stewart spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "All these acquisitions tie to our vision of providing services and ease of use to our customers."

Earlier this year, Cloudvirga said its revenues doubled in 2020, as application volume put through its technology increased by more than 300% over 2019. It expects similar revenue growth in 2021.

"In 2021, we expect the trends that fueled our growth last year — low interest rates, lenders wanting to diversify into other channels, and competition in the TPO space — will not only continue, but accelerate," Kamrooz said in a January press release. "We expect 2021 to be another record year."

Cloudvirga's product for the wholesale channel, which allows lenders to push the point-of-sale capabilities to their mortgage brokers, came out in 2020.

Houston-based Stewart has made 13 acquisitions in total since January 2020, following the September 2019 collapse of its proposed merger with Fidelity National Financial, the nation's largest title underwriter, due to industry consolidation concerns expressed by both the Federal Trade Commission and the New York Department of Financial Services.

On the technology and ancillary services side, those acquisitions included A.S.K Services, Signature Closers, NotaryCam, Pro Teck Valuation Intelligence and United States Appraisals. The company also brought some title agency businesses into its direct network.

Cloudvirga "will continue to operate independently in line with our other recent acquisitions like NotaryCam and we will integrate them into our service offering to broaden services and improve ease of use to our customers," the Stewart spokesperson said.

Houlihan Lokey was Cloudvirga's financial advisor in this transaction.