Redwood Trust, Inc. announced two technology investments under its recently launched RWT Horizons venture, a strategy focused on early and mid-stage companies driving innovation in financial and real estate technology, and digital infrastructure. Investments made through Horizons are designed to support companies whose technologies are accretive to Redwood's businesses, including its residential and business-purpose lending platforms, according to a press release.
RWT Horizons made its first investments in two early-stage technology companies, both with strong ties to the burgeoning residential rental market, according to the press release. The first transaction included an investment in Rent Butter, a Chicago-based firm developing a proprietary tenant screening tool that allows landlords to evaluate prospective tenants and reduce defaults and evictions. The second transaction included an investment in Rent Room, a New York-based software-as-a-service company that offers an easy-to-use, turnkey property management platform designed for small and mid-sized landlords and their tenants.
The company also announced that Ryan McBride, the chief operating officer at CoreVest (a Redwood Trust company and the market's leading lender to residential real estate investors) expanded his responsibilities and has taken on the additional role of chief investment officer of RWT Horizons. In this position, McBride will lead the development and execution of the RWT Horizons strategy for capital deployment and strategic partnerships.
"RWT Horizons is an important element of our enterprise-wide technology strategy, that we believe will drive innovations across both our residential and business-purpose lending platforms," said Christopher Abate, CEO of Redwood Trust. "Through the Horizons initiative, we invest directly in companies strategically aligned with our business, whose technologies we believe can create new efficiencies across the mortgage value chain. In the case of Rent Butter and Rent Room, these disruptive solutions were sourced directly through CoreVest's existing borrower network."
