Tembo, the award-winning digital savings and mortgage platform, specialising in maximising affordability, has raised £14 million in funding. The Series B round was led by Goodwater Capital with participation from Tembo’s existing investors including Aviva, Ascension Ventures, Love Ventures and McPike Family Office. This brings the company’s total funding raised to £20 million.
Tembo will use the funds raised to scale its savings app, building on the success of its award winning Lifetime ISA, and continue to offer market-leading rates while launching new product lines. The company will further strengthen its unique mortgage proposition, introducing new schemes to support a wider variety of customers to boost their affordability.
Tembo was co-founded by Richard Dana, Eddie Ross, and Geoff Wright in October 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Tembo’s mission is a simple one – to increase access to home ownership for first-time buyers and people facing affordability issues.
To achieve this mission Tembo has rapidly enhanced its platform with the best, most innovative solutions to help people who might otherwise not be able to access mortgage finance. Tembo has access to over 100 lenders, 10,000 mortgage products and 25 bespoke mortgage schemes to uncover a borrower’s true affordability, including a specialist range of Income and Deposit Boost family-mortgages. This is paired with its recently launched savings app, which focuses on helping customers save towards their first property purchase and future financial goal via its market-leading Tembo Lifetime ISA.
Since launch, the Tembo team has grown to 85 employees. In the last twelve months the company has helped over 4,000 first time buyers to purchase their first home and 35,000 future buyers to start saving for a deposit with the Tembo Lifetime ISA.
Richard Dana, Co-Founder and CEO of Tembo, said: “We founded Tembo to help make homeownership happen for the hundreds of thousands of people who have been locked out of the property market in the UK. Over the past year alone, we’re proud to have helped thousands of first-time buyers buy their own home, often when they thought it was impossible.
As one of the world’s largest consumer focused investors, Goodwater’s mission is to enable businesses that can bring positive change to the world. We’re delighted to have such an experienced team onboard alongside our existing investors, as we continue in our mission to make home happen, against the odds.
Goodwater’s support will enable us to rapidly expand our savings platform, launching competitive products that will enable our customers to save and invest more as they build their deposit. Plus, we have plans to further solidify our positioning in the market as the go-to player for finding a way for borrowers.”
Edward Robinson, Partner at Goodwater Capital said: “Goodwater Capital is thrilled to support Tembo’s exceptional team, whose innovation is transforming access to home ownership in the UK. By combining cutting-edge technology with customer-focused solutions, Tembo has rapidly grown to help thousands of first-time buyers achieve what once seemed impossible. We’re proud to partner with such a fast-scaling business as they continue to lead in bringing affordability and opportunity to the housing market.”
