Santander InnoVentures, Santander Group’s fintech venture capital fund, is leading an expansion funding round for cloud-based digital lending platform Roostify, which enables mortgages to be done via smartphone.

Santander first invested in the company in February 2018 and this is its second investment.

Founded in 2012, Roostify’s integrated digital lending platform connects customers and lenders to accelerate the home loan experience improving speed, eliminating paper as well as simplifying the process to reduce costs.

The company’s monthly loan volume has more than doubled over the last 12 months to nearly $20 billion a month. To date, customers have shared that the platform has driven a reduction in banks’ mortgage lending process time by an average of 20%.

The latest funding will support Roostify’s growth through its continued build out of capabilities of its public cloud-based platform, including enhanced decision-making and fulfilment capabilities, data and machine learning tools, and additional consumer lending products. It will also support the company’s geographic expansion as it moves into the UK and other markets across Europe.

Santander InnoVentures is supporting Roostify’s expansion with an investment and global agreement, as it unveils new use cases and moves into new core Santander markets by leading the round that also includes funding from existing investors JPMorgan Chase and Colchis Capital among others. Since InnoVentures’s initial investment in Roostify, Santander and the company have been exploring ways of working together, commercially and beyond.

The investment comes at an interesting time for the mortgage lending market, as borrower costs near rock bottom in many global markets, boosting home buying demand and spurring competition between lenders. In the UK, mortgage rates have remained largely unchanged at near-historic lows, fueling the competition between lenders trying to win market share, thus requiring them to improve their user experiences and integrations into third party platforms as a way to differentiate and remain competitive.

Manuel Silva Martínez, partner and head of Investments at Santander InnoVentures, said: “We’re excited to continue supporting Roostify in their next stage of growth as they forge ahead with their multinational and product expansion strategy.

“The company has seen impressive growth since we originally invested in them last year, and the European mortgage lending market is ripe for the type of machine learning tools that Roostify offers.”

Martínez will be joining Roostify’s board of directors as observer.

Rajesh Bhat, co-founder and CEO of Roostify, added: “Digital transformation is a key strategic priority for banks worldwide, and industry-leading lenders are focused on delivering the best customer experience while managing costs.

“The Roostify lending platform enables lenders to realize up to 300% growth in loan applications and a significant reduction origination costs. The future is frictionless, everyone benefits when you optimize the lending process.”