Announcing our Continued Investment in Figure Technologies

We’re proud to announce our continued support for, and investment in Figure Technologies, Inc. (Figure™), a leading fintech company in both the home equity and blockchain space. We led Figure’s Series A alongside our friends at Ribbit Capital last year, and we couldn’t be more proud of the incredible growth momentum and industry traction the team has seen. Figure’s $65 million Series B brings its total equity funding to more than $120 million and is a testament to how far they’ve come in a short year and the opportunities that lie ahead to disrupt traditional financial services.

At its heart, Figure is a fintech company building innovative consumer financial solutions for home improvement, debt consolidation, and retirement while providing its members with financial education and financial empowerment. These solutions are built on the rails of some of the most cutting-edge technology including AI and blockchain, which Figure is simultaneously pioneering the use of to eliminate rent-seeking, illiquidity, and other inefficiencies across financial markets.

In its first year, Figure launched the fastest home equity line of credit (HELOC) in the market and originated, financed and sold every one of its loans on the Provenance™ blockchain, an industry first. Figure’s flagship HELOC product, Figure Home Equity Loan Plus, is a fixed-rate loan that provides approval in as little as five minutes and funding in five days — all online. It also combines the best characteristics of a traditional home equity loan and a HELOC, while allowing consumers to borrow against the equity in their homes without the paperwork-intensive, 45-day process traditional lenders require. Since September 2018, Figure has funded more than 1,500 HELOCs for members across 36 states.

Separately, Figure has also launched an innovative product to help address the looming retirement crisis Americans face today. With less than 50% of Americans able to access a retirement plan at work, and a pension shortfall on the order of several trillion dollars, people need better access to the equity locked in their homes. To meet this need, Figure introduced Figure Home Advantage (FHA), a more transparent and straightforward alternative to reverse mortgages. FHA members can sell their homes to Figure, get cash up front, and stay in place as renters for as long as they wish. Figure covers all expenses, including property taxes, upkeep, and insurance. FHA is being rolled out across Texas, Illinois, and Nevada now, with plans for a national rollout midyear. As with Figure’s HELOC product, FHA members benefit from the speed and efficiency of the Provenance blockchain.

Underlying these products is Provenance, a distributed stakeholder blockchain Figure built to leverage the security, efficiency and cost advantages of blockchain for loan origination, financing and sales. A diverse set of stakeholders including funds, banks, and dealers are active on Provenance today, with Figure being the first loan originator, and several other originators planning to use the platform by mid-2019. Additional use cases, such as investment funds on chain, are also planned for this year.

We’re excited and honored to partner with the Figure team on one of the most innovative and disruptive fintech concepts we’ve seen in recent years. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements from Figure in the coming months.

David Chao and Ibrahim AlSuwaidi

DCM