LendingHome, a online lender that focuses on working with home flippers and rental investors, announced Wednesday that it is rebranding and will change its name to “Kiavi.”
In a statement, the company described the new name as a “phonetic representation of the Italian word ‘chiave,’ meaning ‘key.'” The name also “embodies the company’s aspirations,” the statement continued. Michael Bourque, the firm’s CEO, added that the company is proud to have built “a technology platform designed specifically for today’s residential real estate investor.”
Michael Bourque
“As the company transitions to Kiavi, management’s goal is to continue expanding the tools available to investors across the real estate investment lifecycle,” Bourque said in the statement. “We believe there is a tremendous opportunity to bring technology and data-driven insights to the entire process.”
Kiavi, née LendingHome, was founded in 2013 and has originated a total of $7.8 billion in loans for 35,000 projects, according to the statement. The company touts its ability to lend quickly and with a simplified, tech-based process — something it compares to the “antiquated, inefficient, paper-based processes” that it believes other lenders use.
The company specifically targets investors who plan to either flip or rent out their properties. As a result, it touts investor-oriented bridge loan-style products, among other things.
In its statement, the company also noted that the new name is meant to reflect the growth and change it has seen in recent years, including the debut of loans for rental investors. And Bourque said that as Kiavi, the company will continue to build on the insights it has gained from past experience.
“With over 900 million data points to inform our machine learning models, we’re looking forward to continuing to build on this experience to help real estate investors grow and scale,” he said in the statement. “The new brand sets us up for our next chapter.”