Sydney-based embedded finance startup LendUs has raised $5 million in a seed round led by Carthona Capital to scale its digital home loan comparison platform, which plugs into consumer-facing brands as turnkey infrastructure.
The round was described by the company as "heavily oversubscribed", with interest reaching close to double the committed capital before being capped at $5 million.
Founded by 26-year-old CEO Dean Mendelowitz, a former data scientist at buy-now-pay-later group Zip Co (ASX: ZIP), LendUs provides an embeddable platform that allows brands to offer home loan comparison and origination tools to their existing customer bases.
The model positions consumer platforms, rather than traditional mortgage brokers, as the distribution channel for home lending.
The company's founding shareholder group includes Brad Lindenberg, who sold US-based buy-now-pay-later platform QuadPay to Zip Co for $403 million, and Graham Mendelowitz, who founded specialist mortgage lender MKM Capital before it was acquired by MA Financial Group (ASX: MAF).
LendUs reports early traction of more than 20 integrated partnerships, over 10,000 users comparing home loans through the platform, and 150 per cent platform growth between January and May this year.
“We’re seeing strong demand from organisations that want to offer a home loan solution to their members or customers but don’t want to build the infrastructure themselves," says Mendelowitz.
"Our platform allows partners to deliver a digital, choice-driven and rewards-backed home loan experience directly inside their ecosystem.”
The platform operates by embedding home loan comparison tools directly into partner ecosystems, allowing consumers to compare rates and connect with lenders without leaving the host brand's environment.
Mendelowitz built the platform after observing during his time at Zip Co how embedded financial products could be distributed at scale through existing consumer touchpoints.
He launched LendUs to apply the same logic to home lending, a market where traditional broker-led distribution has been slower to digitise.
The seed funding will be directed toward expanding the company's partner network and deepening its technology stack as it targets broader integration across consumer platforms nationally.
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