01/05/2010
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Parthenon Capital Partners, a private equity firm with offices in San Francisco and Boston, announced today that it completed an investment in loanDepot, an online consumer direct mortgage origination company based in Irvine, California. The purpose of the investment is to provide the necessary growth capital for the Company to secure warehouse funding and to continue to develop the leading origination platform in the industry.
loanDepot is led by industry veteran and Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Hsieh, a pioneer in the mortgage industry who, with his highly accomplished team, previously built two successful mortgage businesses, LoansDirect and Home Loan Center. Mr. Hsieh co-invested alongside Parthenon in the transaction. “We greatly appreciate the support of the Parthenon Capital Partners team,” said Mr. Hsieh. “We were fortunate to have a number of potential funding options but chose Parthenon Capital Partners given our longstanding relationship with their partnership group and their deep understanding of the mortgage industry.”
“We are thrilled to partner with the preeminent team in the mortgage origination business,” said Brian Golson, Managing Partner of Parthenon Capital Partners. “Since we first met Anthony and his team in 2003, we have looked for the right opportunity to partner with them, and we’re excited to have found it by supporting their new venture, loanDepot.”
loanDepot, which officially launches this week, provides purchase mortgages and refinancing direct to consumers through its online portal, www.loanDepot.com. In addition to finding the best mortgage solutions for consumers, loanDepot provides significant content designed to educate the consumer and demystify the mortgage process. Mr. Hsieh and his team have built the technology and the systems required to provide exceptional customer service, efficient mortgage processing, and stringent underwriting. Having designed this system following the recent mortgage crisis and subsequent increase in regulatory requirements, loanDepot will have one of the only mortgage processes in the industry built specifically for this new environment.
Parthenon has been analyzing the mortgage origination industry broadly—and this team specifically—for more than five years. Andrew Dodson, Principal in Parthenon’s San Francisco office, remarked, “the recent consolidation and heightened regulatory requirements have caused considerable dislocation in the mortgage industry. This outstanding team has been able to build a system designed for the new mortgage environment and obtain access to capital when few other teams can. We believe this is a testament to the team’s historical success and the industry’s confidence in their capabilities going forward.”
ABOUT loanDepot
loanDepot, based in Irvine, CA, is a 3rd generation online direct-to-consumer lender servicing multiple states. The company founder, industry veteran Anthony Hsieh, with a world-class executive team, is well known for pioneering the Internet mortgage industry, building two highly successful companies and merging them into publicly-traded companies, E*TRADE Mortgage (NASDAQ: ETFC) and LendingTree Loans (NASDAQ: TREE), both of which are still in operation today. loanDepot is committed to delivering a better, faster, more efficient process and industry-leading rates while delivering the best service in the industry.
ABOUT PARTHENON CAPITAL PARTNERS
Parthenon Capital Partners is a leading mid-market private equity firm based in Boston and San Francisco. Parthenon utilizes niche industry expertise and a deep execution team to invest in growth companies in service industries. Parthenon seeks to be an active and aligned partner to management, either through recapitalization transactions or by backing new executives. Parthenon has particular expertise in business services, financial and insurance services and healthcare, but seeks any service, technology or delivery business with a strong value proposition and proprietary know-how. Parthenon’s investment team has deep experience in corporate strategy, capital markets and operations, enabling the firm to pursue complex, multi-faceted value creation opportunities. For more information, visit www.parthenoncapital.com.