Fintel has bought Mortgage Brain Holdings for £38.4m.
Mortgage Brain Holdings owns companies including Mortgage Brain Limited, AE3 Media, Criteria Hub and Mortgage Engine.
The best known, Mortgage Brain, provides the software used to support around 40% of UK residential mortgage and buy-to-let applications.
Fintel first invested £1.5m in Mortgage Brain Holdings in March 2024, buying a 5.8% stake. It has now bought the remaining shares for £38.4m.
The acquisition expands Fintel’s reach into the mortgage market. Fintel already owns financial information provider Defaqto and has a 49% stake in Plannr, which provides software to financial planners.
Mortgage Brain and Plannr have already linked their systems, allowing advisers to go from gathering information about a client to submitting a mortgage application without having to switch between separate systems and enter the same details again.
Matt Timmins, CEO of Fintel, said: “The acquisition strengthens our software and data division, expands our capabilities across multi-disciplinary wealth, mortgage and advisory businesses, and increases the size of our data assets.”
He added that Mortgage Brain’s technology and its tie-ups with Plannr provide further opportunities to develop AI tools and services for advisors.
Zahid Bilgrami, CEO of Mortgage Brain, will remain in charge of the business and take on the additional role of CEO of Software and Data at Fintel. He previously led Defacto for 11 years.
“Mortgage Brain’s market-leading mortgage data and technology, combined with Fintel’s data and intelligence across wealth, insurance and financial products, creates a data set that is unique in the UK market,” Bilgrami said.
He said that this merger will support the development of data analysis and artificial intelligence-based tools for the financial consulting sector.
Fintel said it will continue to invest in Mortgage Brain technology. The group wants its software companies to work more closely together, while allowing consulting firms to retain control of their own data.
Last September, Fintel, owner of Simplybiz Mortgages, raised its most expensive fund to £120m to “support growth and acquisitions” across its software and business support arms.
