Benzinga | Apr 11, 2021 10:31AM EDT

SoftBank Makes $500 Million Bet On Mortgage Market With Investment In Better.com

Better.com has gotten a valuation boost and an injection of capital from SoftBank Group Corp (OTC:SFTBY) (OTC:SFTBF).

* SoftBank, the Japan-based conglomerate run by Son Masayoshi and manager of the $100 billion Vision Fund, is investing $500 million in Better.com, a consumer mortgage lending site, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

* The investment is putting a a valuation of about $6 billion on Better, according to WSJ, which cited unnamed sources.

* That's a 50% step up from the $4 billion valuation in the company's Series D round last November, when the company raised $200 million, according to TechCrunch.

* Better.com extended $25 billion in loans last year and chalked up $14 billion in the first quarter of this year, according to WSJ.

* The homebuying market has been hot amid the pandemic, with Rocket Companies (NYSE:RKT) going public in an August IPO, followed by competitor United Wholesale Mortgage taking the SPAC route to going public, now trading as UWM Holdings Corp (NYSE:UWMC).

* Son wants to invest in more fast-growing, pre-IPO companies, and WSJ said.

* Better.com CEO and co-founder Vishal Garg is keeping his shares as part of the deal, and SoftBank agreed to give all of its voting rights to Garg, the newspaper reported.

* Better.com is moving toward an IPO, though no official plans have been announced, TechCrunch reported.

* The tally of Better.com's fundraising now comes to a total of more than $900 million, with Goldman Sachs, Kleiner Perkins, American Express, Activant Capital and Citi, among the other investors, according to TechCrunch.

Photo by Avi Waxman on Unsplash.