Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.
In its latest move to harness artificial intelligence and plug its mortgage, real estate and personal finance businesses into a fintech platform, Rocket Companies has hired former Venmo and PayPal executive Papanii Okai to fill a new role created for him at the company: executive vice president of product engineering.
Okai previously led technology and engineering teams at peer-to-peer payments giant Venmo as the company’s CTO and vice president of engineering and, before that, led engineering teams for several PayPal products.
By centralizing customer data and cross-marketing services to them, Rocket hopes that its individual businesses will create synergies for the company as a whole.
When Rocket rebranded Truebill as Rocket Money in 2022, for example, it connected the personal finance app to the rest of the Rocket platform — allowing Rocket to market mortgages and other services to the app’s users. More recently, last year’s launch of the Rocket Card’s Visa rewards card targeted first-time homebuyers, incentivizing them to choose Rocket Mortgage to finance their home.
Rocket’s efforts to reposition itself as a fintech accelerated with last year’s appointment of Krishna — a former Intuit, PayPal and Microsoft exec — as CEO.
Krishna has brought in new talent including former Sagent CEO Dan Sagorka and Airbnb marketing vet Jonathan Mildenhall, and sharpened Rocket’s focus on artificial intelligence.
