CHICAGO–TransUnion said it has made an equity investment in FinLocker, a fintech that seeks to help consumers take more control of their data and more quickly secure the right loans at the right time, primarily mortgages.
TransUnion’s equity investment is part of FinLocker’s approximately $20M Series A-1 financing round, and also includes entrance into a commercial partnership agreement.
“The partnership will allow consumers to collect and permission their financial information needed to secure a mortgage, among other loans,” TransUnion said. “This can allow consumers to receive a loan decision much faster and even make a home-buying offer equipped with a loan commitment from their lender ahead of time.”
TransUnion said consumers are able to maintain control of their information throughout the process.
“They can tap educational resources to help prepare them for the mortgage application process as well as take advantage of a personalized financial health dashboard, something that can be particularly appealing to first-time homebuyers,” the company said.
According to TransUnion, lenders also benefit in a number of ways, including streamlining the application process to save significant time and expense, and leveraging FinLocker for lead nurturing and conversion by gaining deeper insights into consumers’ actions and behaviors, making smarter risk decisions and uncovering new opportunities to drive growth.
“A consumer’s personal information is the key to unlocking new economic opportunities,” said Peter Esparrago, Co-founder and CEO of FinLocker. “However, the current processes for securing credit can make it difficult for consumers to leverage their data assets to their full potential. TransUnion is well-positioned within the financial services industry to partner with FinLocker to pursue these avenues of growth and bring a more streamlined approach to the loan application and approval processes for both lenders and consumers.”
‘Personal Financial Management Tool’
According to the company, consumers will collect their information through FinLocker’s next-gen transactional personal financial management tool. FinLocker is available to consumers through their financial institution via desktop or mobile application, and stores and manages information within a personal data and document vault or “locker.”
TransUnion said it will package its lead generation and servicing solutions with FinLocker to provide updated credit and consumer information to loan originators and servicers. Additionally, TransUnion will offer its best-in-class marketing suite of solutions to identify high quality leads so originators can reach consumers they are looking for, be it a veteran, a person with home equity looking to consolidate debt with a cash out refi or an aspiring first-time homebuyer.