独家：Blend借贷平台获1.3亿美元融资

Blend公司在最近一轮风投中筹集了1.3亿美元资金。随着这笔资金的注入，这家总部位于旧金山的金融科技初创企业距离成为“独角兽”企业近在咫尺，即该公司的估值将达到10亿美元或以上。

相关交易条款及最新估值均未披露。知情人士告诉《财富》杂志，在获得最新一轮融资后，该公司的估值达“D轮的两倍”，D轮是该公司的上一轮融资，发生在2017年8月，根据行业跟踪公司Pitchbook提供的数据，当时投资者对Blend的估值为5亿美元，其中还包括该轮1亿美元的融资。

Blend为包括富国银行（Wells Fargo）和美国合众银行（US Bank）在内的150多家银行将相关贷款流程转移至线上。这家成立7年的初创公司最著名的产品是抵押贷款应用和包销软件，不过它也提供与房屋净值、存款开户和房主保险相关的产品。

Blend的首席执行官及联合创始人尼玛·加姆萨里于上周出席了在纽约蒙托克举行的《财富》杂志首届头脑风暴金融会议，在一个以贷款为主题的圆桌会议上做了发言。他说，Blend每天经手大约20亿美元的贷款。

富国银行的执行副总裁兼房屋贷款主管迈克·德维托说，他的公司和Blend“优先工作事项相同”，其中包括利用科技让人们的生活更便捷。他说，与Blend合作“帮助我们加快了创新步伐，更好地为我们的客户服务。”

纽约投资公司General Atlantic的董事总经理保罗·斯塔玛斯与新加坡主权财富基金淡马锡（Temasek）共同领投此轮融资。斯塔玛斯表示，Blend有潜力让贷款过程“更容易、更迅速、更透明”，他为此感到激动。

在筹集资金的同时，Blend还任命皮克斯（Pixar）前任首席财务官、Alphabet、爱彼迎（Airbnb）和Netflix现任董事安·马瑟为董事会成员。今年，Blend还聘请房利美（Fannie Mae）前任首席执行官蒂姆·马约普洛斯担任董事长。

加姆萨里第一次感受到纸质流程数字化的神奇是在21世纪初，当时他在eBay上出售《万智牌：旅法师》（Magic: The Gathering）的集换式卡牌。销售很费力，而且需要等好几天甚至好几周的时间，才能够等到客户邮寄的支票兑付。加姆萨里说，后来eBay加入了硅谷新兴公司推出的PayPal支付方式，这些痛点消失了。

斯坦福大学毕业后，加姆萨里后来在Palantir工作，Palantir是由PayPal的前首席执行官彼得·泰尔和他人共同创办的一家创业公司。2008年金融危机期间，加姆萨里在这家数据挖掘公司的工作领域是金融服务业务，他萌生了创立Blend的想法。

加姆萨里说，他计划利用新筹集的资金在现有400人的基础上招聘更多员工。他还说，希望能够拓展至新的产品领域，比如为汽车贷款提供支持等。

Blend自2012年成立以来已经筹集了3.1亿美元。光速创投（Lightspeed）、Greylock Partners、8VC和创始人基金（Founders Fund）等现有投资者也参与了最新一轮融资。（财富中文网）

译者：Agatha

Blend has raised $130 million in new venture capital funding. The cash injection likely puts the San Francisco-based fintech startup within striking distance of “unicorn” status, meaning a private valuation of $1 billion or more.

The terms of the deal, including the latest valuation, were not disclosed. A source close to the deal told Fortune, however, that the latest round was “about doubling the series D valuation,” referring to a prior round of fundraising in which investors privately appraised Blend at $500 million, including the $100 million raised, in August 2017, per data provided by Pitchbook, an industry tracker.

Blend digitizes paper processes for more than 150 banks, including Wells Fargo and US Bank. The 7-year-old startup is best known for its mortgage applications and underwriting software, though it also offers products related to home equity, deposit account openings, and homeowners’ insurance.

Nima Ghamsari, Blend’s chief executive and cofounder, spoke last week on a lending-focused roundtable at Fortune’s inaugural Brainstorm Finance conference in Montauk, New York. He said his firm processes about $2 billion in loans every day.

Michael DeVito, executive vice president and head of home lending at Wells Fargo, said his company and Blend’s “share the same priority,” which includes using technology to make people’s lives easier. He said that working with Blend “has helped us accelerate the pace of innovation and, in doing so, better serve our customers.”

Paul Stamas, a managing director at General Atlantic, a N.Y.-based investment firm, co-led the fundraising deal alongside Temasek, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore. Stamas said he was excited about Blend’s potential to make the lending process “easier, faster, and more transparent.”

In conjunction with the fundraising, Blend appointed Ann Mather, former chief financial officer of Pixar and current director at Alphabet, Airbnb, and Netflix, to its board of directors. Earlier this year Blend hired Tim Mayopoulos, the former CEO of Fannie Mae, as its president.

Ghamsari got his first taste of the magic of digitizing paper processes when he was selling Magic: The Gathering collectible cards on eBay in the early 2000s. Sales were laborious, and they required waiting days, or weeks, for mailed checks to clear. But when the e-commerce site integrated payments options from an upstart Silicon Valley firm, PayPal, these pain points vanished, Ghamsari said.

After studying at Stanford, Ghamsari later worked for Palantir, a startup cofounded by Peter Thiel, erstwhile CEO of PayPal. Ghamsari got the idea to start Blend while working on the data-mining company’s financial services business amid the 2008 financial crisis.

Ghamsari said he plans to use the newly raised funds to hire more employees at his 400-person company. He also said he would like to expand into new product lines, such as supporting auto loans.

Blend has raised a total of $310 million since its founding in 2012. Existing investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, 8VC, and Founders Fund also contributed to the latest round of funding.