Zippy, a “community-focused” chattel lender, just raised additional investment from Brand Foundry and repeat investors, addressing growing demand for manufactured home loans.
Since its foundation, the company has been on a steady path to becoming one of the largest lenders in the manufactured housing industry, which has struggled to take off in part because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac haven’t provided liquidity for loans on manufactured homes titled as personal property, and private lenders tend to charge high interest rates and offer few protections. (Borrowers of chattel loans often pay double the rate of real estate loans psecured by
It has raised a total of $26 million in venture funding and is already active in 17 markets. The company didn’t disclose the amount of the latest round. Earlier this year, Zippy announced another round of investments from Nashville-based FirstBank.
The company says its online platform can originate competitive loans in a matter of days.
“Zippy is providing an integral part of the equation to increase access to affordable housing by giving homebuyers more competitive financing options,” said Wesley Gottesman, partner at Brand Foundry. “We are thrilled to continue to support them in democratizing access to home ownership while pushing the entire manufactured housing industry forward.”
Recently, Zippy welcomed the appointment of a new VP of Sales, Jesse Field, formerly of TrueCar. The company also initiated new partnerships with owner-operators of manufactured home communities, fueling the company’s exponential growth.
This investment will allow Zippy to continue to offer community partners the technology needed to sell competitive loans to homebuyers, the company said Thursday. A new influx of chattel houses might be one of the solutions to remedy the affordability crisis.
“This investment will fuel Zippy’s expansion in both sales and engineering capabilities and allow us to expand our footprint across the country,” said Jordan Bucy, Zippy co-founder & COO. “We’re excited to strengthen our presence and offerings to increase more opportunities for affordable housing as we march toward the immense opportunity in front of us.”
As part of its duty to serve plan, Freddie Mac aims to purchase 1,500 to 2,500 chattel loans by 2024. Fannie Mae is weighing buying chattel loans in the future as well.
