The deal will give Lower greater reach, while also contributing to an “end-to-end homeownership” platform — increasingly the holy grail of real estate technology.
Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!
Movoto, a portal and technology company that began its journey as artificial intelligence firm OJO, announced Tuesday that it is being acquired by mortgage lender Lower.
In a statement, the companies said the deal will combine “Movoto’s significant reach with Lower’s lending platform and retail network.”
Together, the two firms also aim to create “an end-to-end homeownership platform,” the statement adds.
The companies did not disclose financial details of the deal.
Dan Snyder
In the statement, Lower CEO Dan Snyder said that “Movoto is the perfect platform to accelerate this vision, allowing us to create a simpler, smarter path to homeownership.”
“Acquiring Movoto strengthens our position as the challenger platform, enhancing our ability to deliver the best localized and personalized service and capture significant market share,” he added.
As part of the deal, Movoto CEO John Berkowitz will join Lower as president of real estate. The statement notes that “immediately after closing, the teams will integrate Movoto into the Lower brand.” The combined company will have offices in Columbus, Ohio, and Austin, Texas, and will employ more than 1,000 people.
According to the statement, with the brands integrated, visitors to Movoto.com will get “early and on-demand access to Lower’s expert, local loan officers, simplifying crucial decisions around affordability.” The deal will enable better customer acquisition, the statement further asserts, adding that the combined firm will connect loan originators “to thousands of motivated homebuyers and top-performing agents in their markets.”
News of the deal comes on the heels of several other major and similar acquisitions, perhaps most notably Rocket’s picking up of Redfin and Mr. Cooper — also deals that will enable the participants to move closer to an end-to-end real estate platform. Such platforms have been the stated objective of many real estate companies for years now, but have so far failed to materialize or yield transformative results.
However, this year’s mergers and acquisitions represent a newly aggressive push on the part of many companies to assemble end-to-end platforms out of the pieces of disparate firms.
The company now known as Movoto first launched about a decade ago and was a project of Berkowitz, who had previously founded and sold a startup called Yodle. Initially, Berkowitz’s company was called OJO and offered an artificial intelligence chatbot. However, over the years, the company evolved, raised millions in funding and, in 2020, acquired consumer portal Movoto.
Last year, the company rebranded to make the Movoto banner its outward-facing brand, with OJO becoming the name of the parent firm — similar to the relationship of Meta to Facebook. At the same time, the company began more proactively touting its consumer portal, thus positioning it as a player in the ever-escalating portal wars between companies such as Zillow, Realtor.com and Homes.com.
The deal announced Tuesday includes both the Movoto and OJO brands.
John Berkowitz
In Tuesday’s statement, Berkowitz reiterated Movoto’s standing as a consumer portal.
“The bigger portals touch almost everyone online but fail to help those customers through the whole process,” he said. “By focusing on how technology empowers local connections, we can deliver better service to the consumer and build a business that generates far more profit per visitor.”
According to the statement, Lower was founded in 2014 and “is one of the fastest-growing mortgage lenders in the country.” Earlier this year, the company hired former Redfin executive Adam Wiener to serve as president. In addition to operating in the mortgage and technology spaces, the company also provides real estate brokerage services and homeowners insurance through Lower Realty LLC and Lower Insurance Services LLC.
In Tuesday’s statement, Wiener praised Movoto, saying the company “provides a unique opportunity to engage consumers from the start of their homebuying journey, through the purchase process and for the entire time they own that home until it’s time to sell and buy the next one.”
“Integrating Lower’s lending strength,” he added, “will lead to an end-to-end ecosystem that creates clients for life.”
Update: This story was updated after publication with addition details on the acquisition and with additional background.
