Dark Matter Technologies execs talk transition from Black Knight, innovation in the mortgage tech space

Darkish Matter Applied sciences, previously Black Knight Origination Applied sciences, is targeted on primarily two issues: the graceful transition to new house owners, and reducing the fee to originate loans for lenders.

Executives from Darkish Matter Applied sciences, beneath the Constellation Software program umbrella, stated {that a} down market is the most effective time to make investments in know-how and put together for the subsequent cycle.

With lenders centered on bringing origination prices down in a troublesome origination setting, the agency noticed as much as a 300% year-over-year progress in new person numbers for the previous couple of years.

“We really do nicely in any sort of market,” Wealthy Gagliano, CEO of Darkish Matter Applied sciences and former president of Black Knight, stated in an interview with HousingWire on Friday.

“Now we’re in a down cycle, they should do it with fewer folks and so they should be extra environment friendly to get the fee down. So it’s actually the identical story, simply completely different markets,” Gagliano stated.

Darkish Matter Applied sciences, which accomplished the acquisition of Black Knight’s Empower and Optimum Blue final week, shall be working in the direction of a easy transition over to Constellation Software with its 1,300-plus workers for the rest of the 12 months.

The corporate doesn’t plan to boost pricing for Empower and is targeted on providers and merchandise that can drive down the price of origination and worker borrower retention, executives stated. 

Gagliano, Sean Dugan, CRO of Darkish Matter Applied sciences and Tom George, co-president of Romulus, a part of the Perseus Group of Constellation Software program, participated within the interview.

Learn on to be taught extra about Darkish Matter Applied sciences’ plan for mortgage.

This interview has been condensed and calmly edited for readability.

Connie Kim: Constellation’s Perseus Group has a fairly large actual property portfolio. What have been the explanations for purchasing Black Knight’s Empower and Optimum Blue? What alternatives did the agency see?

Tom George: The best way Constellation operates is that we give attention to buying vertical market software program firms and portfolios of vertical market software program firms with the intent to remain in these industries eternally. 

We began virtually 20 years in the past and Perseus within the homebuilding trade, we constructed a major participant in homebuilding software program, that led us to an adjacency residential actual property the place we purchased over 20 firms. Extra just lately, we began buying companies within the mortgage tech area. 

We plan to be within the mortgage tech area eternally. And we plan to proceed to accumulate there. 

Kim: What different mortgage tech firms has Constellation Software program acquired?

George: We’ve acquired three different companies within the mortgage area. We purchased Mortgage Builder Software program from Altisource Portfolio Options in 2019. There have been two extra acquisitions – ReverseVision, which is a pacesetter within the reverse mortgage LOS area, after which a doc storage product known as Again Help.

Kim: Are you anticipating any layoffs in the course of the transition? Will the identical administration from Black Knight’s Empower and Optimum Blue be in place? 

Wealthy Gagliano: We’re not anticipating any adjustments. [About] 1300 [employees] are going to maneuver over with us and it’s enterprise as ordinary.

Kim: It’s a troublesome mortgage origination market proper now. How does the corporate count on to handle revenue amid industry consolidation, bankruptcies and attrition?

Gagliano: We’ve seen a powerful pipeline. Regardless that the markets are down, what we encourage and discuss to shoppers about is whenever you’re sluggish, that’s the most effective time to make know-how adjustments. Now could be the time for that change, and get your self prepared for the subsequent cycle.

We really do nicely in any sort of market. However truthfully, when the market is loopy, lenders are in search of efficiencies as a result of they will’t discover and rent sufficient employees. Now we’re in a down cycle, they should do it with fewer folks and so they should be extra environment friendly to get the fee down. So it’s actually the identical story, simply completely different markets.

Kim: I undoubtedly hear a whole lot of mortgage tech firms saying ‘that is the time to speculate, particularly when the market is down.’ You talked about a powerful pipeline, are we speaking about new shoppers? 

Sean Dugan: We’ve had 200% to 300% progress year-over-year for the final couple of years. And we don’t see that backing up. These aren’t monetary metrics, that was simply on the variety of shoppers acquired. Once we took the Empower LOS platform to the down- to mid-market shoppers and actually centered on that, we noticed the variety of acquisitions per 12 months develop in a extremely important trend. 

Kim: Empower has an estimated market share of round 10-15% after ICE’s Embody which takes up about 40 to 45% of market share. How does Darkish Matter plan to compete towards Embody?

Gagliano: We consider strongly in know-how. We’re usually in a lot of the offers once we find out about them. We consider that the automation, and the know-how and the answer that we convey, and the ecosystem that we now have, is finest within the trade and actually helps these lenders drive value out of the system.

We compete with a number of product suppliers on the market, together with Embody. However we like the place we’re positioned and I believe our shoppers just like the improvements that we’ve introduced over the previous over years.

Kim: Once I discuss to lenders, they are saying when utilizing an organization’s LOS, utilizing the identical firm’s add-on merchandise makes it extra cost-efficient and seamless. What are a few of the add-on merchandise the corporate has already developed or is in search of to develop to win over lenders?

Gagliano: Simply over the previous couple of years, we’ve added Ava, which is our synthetic intelligence functionality. Ava has added a few extra merchandise over the previous two years. We’ve added an underwriting effectivity product, we’ve added a post-close product that’s going into manufacturing – so pretty new merchandise.

We’re going to proceed to make use of the merchandise that we now have in our bundle at the moment and promote these so no adjustments there. However we’re incrementally including new know-how, new improvements, which can be going to assist drive that value down.

Dugan: We’ve additionally delivered digital portals for every one in all our enterprise channels inside Empower, which would come with retail, wholesale, correspondent, residence fairness and assumptions. We even have enterprise intelligence as a part, after which a vendor aggregation platform, which was by the identify of Change. These are a few of the parts that make up the Darkish Matter-owned bundle of providers inside Empower.

Kim: I do know Ava has some sort of AI side to it. Proper now, a whole lot of mortgage tech firms are specializing in AI. How they’re going to make the most of AI to be that intermediary between the shopper and the mortgage originator. I’m curious how Darkish Matter goes to combine AI and machine studying (ML) to the LOS and different merchandise.

Dugan: No matter what the know-how resolution is, shoppers are in search of flexibility, configurability – issues that they will configure to satisfy their explicit necessities. They’re in search of a extremely important return on their funding, and so they’re seeking to drive the price of origination in addition to worker and borrower retention.

Kim: One of many considerations in regards to the ICE-Black Knight merger was the concern that ICE would increase costs on the LOS merchandise. Will there be any pricing adjustments for Darkish Matter Applied sciences?

Gagliano: We don’t have something deliberate at this level. Our Constellation companions haven’t requested us to return in and lift costs. That’s not a part of their technique, their technique is to accumulate high quality firms and run the companies.

Kim: Who does Darkish Matter Applied sciences think about as rivals proper now?

Dugan: It’s any origination know-how supplier. There are a selection of suppliers which can be delivering providers particular to underwriting capabilities, so we’d compete with them. So I believe it’s a bunch of suppliers and distributors throughout the ecosystem of this explicit vertical that we compete with on a day-by-day foundation.

Kim: What are your prospects for the rest of the 12 months for mortgage origination? What are a few of the bigger objectives for Darkish Matter Applied sciences?

Gagliano: By way of the tip of the 12 months, we’re going to be transitioning to Constellation transferring off Black Knight Applied sciences. We’ve added some corporate-level capabilities already. So we be ok with the place we’re and keep centered on that by the tip of the 12 months.