Vincent Turner
4th February 2018
In another vote of confidence for UNO, today we’re announcing a further $5 million investment from Westpac – bringing its total investment to $26.5 million.
The additional $5 million is reflective of the success of our business to date and will enable us to continue enhancing the technology behind our customer platform to make the home loan search even more effortless for borrowers.
When we polled home buyers last year, one of the things that came up again and again was, “Why do brokers see a screen and we don’t?” With UNO, transparency trumps all and the fact that we enable our customers to see what we see sets us apart.
One of the advantages in having a consumer-facing platform is that you see what we see and you’ll notice our business is very evenly spread among all our lenders. Roughly speaking, a quarter of our business goes to the big four banks and three quarters to second and third tier lenders.
Our team of experts are not paid individual sales commission, so you can feel empowered knowing we’re not favouring a particular bank or brand when we make a shortlist or recommendation.
One of the main differences between UNO’s advisers and traditional brokers is that our advisers collaborate and work together to help borrowers. When you come to UNO, you get access to the whole team and the collective wisdom of all our advisers who are happy to share their knowledge. You don’t usually get that in a broking environment because one guy focused on their commission isn’t as likely to help the next guy earn theirs.
At this point you’re probably thinking, “This all sounds great for UNO, but what exactly does Westpac get out of it?”
As an early stage business with our own unique culture and business mindset, UNO is an engine of learning. We learn at a massive pace compared to a large organisation because we move faster. We can think of something on Monday, ship it on Tuesday, be learning what it looks like on Wednesday, have statistical results on Thursday, and put it in code by Friday. A large company would take weeks or months to do the same thing.
We’ve just started a new financial year and are excited about continuing our work to make the search for home loans easier and more transparent for you. As we focus on building our brand, we welcome any feedback you have for us as we continue to grow and learn. This information in this article is general only and does not take into account your individual circumstances. It should not be relied upon to make any financial decisions. UNO can’t make a recommendation until we complete an assessment of your requirements and objectives and your financial position. Interest rates, and other product information included in this article, are subject to change at any time at the complete discretion of each lender.
