Mortgage fintech Tomo rolls out real-time pre-approval

Tomo, a Connecticut-based fintech, launched a real-time underwritten mortgage loan pre- approval, which should spit out a credit decision in "the matter of one minute."

This new offering allows for a buyer's income, assets, liabilities, and credit to be quickly verified, and then the application to be pre-underwritten and pre-decisioned at any time, the company claims in its press release.

In the past couple of months Tomo has rolled out numerous offerings to try to drum up originations including appraisal coverage —a product that  protects home buyers from having to bring more cash to the close when appraisals come in low– and a lock and shop product, which allows a potential buyer to lock-in a mortgage rate for up to 120 days.

All of these offerings are meant to "target specific pain points within the mortgage process" and "broaden access to homeownership," the company said.

"With every product launch, we aim to create a more seamless home purchasing process so the mortgage itself will be the easiest part," Greg Schwartz, CEO of Tomo said in a statement. "Market conditions are going to put a pinch on buyers for years to come; we can't fix that, but we're trying to fix everything else."

Additionally, Tomo has expanded into six states, mostly along the East Coast, including Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, the company said last week. This brings the number of states that Tomo operates in to 14, plus Washington, D.C.

The expansion comes in the aftermath of a company-wide layoff in June where a third of its workforce was let go. At the time Schwartz noted that volatility in the mortgage market has caused "venture capital to pull back" and the company "must map out a stable budget that will rely on less capital for longer."

 The lender now has close to 110 employees and doesn't plan more layoffs. Tomo raised $40 million in a Series A funding round in March and recently touted a valuation of $640 million. 

Former Zillow executives Carey Armstrong and Schwartz founded Tomo in 2020 and raised $70 million in seed funding last June. The company also immediately pledged to forgo refinances during their recent spike in popularity. Tomo claims to have closed 100% of its loans on time in 2021.