Better Home & Finance founder Vishal Garg is leaving the CEO role, effective immediately, while the mortgage fintech pivots toward a partner-led platform strategy and accelerates cost reductions.
The company’s board appointed director Daniel Lewis as interim CEO, Better announced Monday. Garg “mutually agreed” with the board to transition from the position but will remain a director and work with Lewis during the leadership change.
Lewis will oversee Better’s operations, execute the board-approved operating plan, and establish the company’s strategic direction. The announcement did not say whether the board has begun searching for a permanent CEO or whether Lewis is being considered for the position.
“Better is at an important inflection point, and now is the right time for new leadership,” Garg said.
Better Pivots to Partner-Led Model
The leadership change comes alongside a shift in Better’s business model. The company said it is sharpening its focus on a platform model in which partners, rather than Better, are responsible for acquiring customers.
Instead of competing through customer-acquisition spending, Better intends to use its Tinman mortgage platform to manufacture loans for enterprise customers and independent mortgage brokers. The platform provides technology, underwriting, operations, capital markets, and regulatory infrastructure.
“Looking ahead, Better will win by leveraging that experience to manufacture mortgages efficiently, not by outspending competitors on customer acquisition,” Lewis said.
The partner-led direction predates Lewis’ appointment. Late last year, NEO Home Loans co-founder Ryan Grant said Better’s technology had originally been designed for direct-to-consumer lending and required adaptation for distributed retail. Grant saw the combination of Better’s automation and NEO’s local mortgage professionals as a way to lower fulfillment costs while preserving human guidance.
The company is also pursuing substantially deeper expense reductions. Better now expects annualized cost reductions to exceed $45 million by the end of 2026, up from its previously announced target of $25 million.
Lewis said HELOC demand is strengthening and Better intends to increase its activity in that market. He also pointed to interest in Tinman among enterprise customers and independent mortgage brokers, with Better seeking to simplify workflows and increase automation for loan originators.
Lewis joined Better’s board July 27, just one week before being named interim CEO, after advising the company on cost reductions, enterprise partnerships, strategic planning, and operational initiatives. Better identified him as a significant company shareholder when announcing his board appointment. He previously led Toronto-based Ascend Fundraising Solutions from 2018 to 2023. Earlier in his career, Lewis spent nine years at Citigroup before founding investment firm Orange Capital in 2005.
Better said the “overwhelming majority” of Lewis’ compensation will be tied to shareholder returns and long-term operating performance, although the board has not yet determined the package.
Volume Rises, Losses Continue
Better announced preliminary second-quarter results alongside the leadership change. Funded loan volume rose 38% year over year to $1.67 billion, while revenue increased 28% to $54.7 million.
Despite those gains, Better recorded a preliminary net loss of $30.6 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $14 million. The adjusted result included a $6.5 million benefit from the release of a TRID reserve related to loans originated before June 2022.
The figures follow the growth Better reported in the first quarter, when total loan volume increased 89% year over year to $1.64 billion, and revenue rose 52% to $48 million. Platform volume reached $821 million, representing half of Better’s first-quarter loan volume. The company recorded a $70 million net loss and a $19 million adjusted EBITDA loss in the quarter.
The preliminary second-quarter results remain subject to completion of Better’s financial closing procedures.
Better also continues to pursue the sale of Birmingham Bank, its U.K. banking subsidiary, through a process led by investment bank FT Partners.
The company moved its second-quarter earnings release and investor call to Aug. 6, after the market closes. Better had previously scheduled the earnings announcement for Aug. 10.
Garg’s Complicated Tenure
Lewis’ strategy represents a sharp break from the brand-building thesis Garg described in NMP’s March 2025 cover story, although Better’s movement toward partner-led distribution had already begun. Garg compared Better’s path to brands such as Uber, Amazon, Carvana, and Rocket Mortgage, which spent heavily to build national recognition.
“There’s just a cycle to becoming a household brand in America for a particular product,” Garg told NMP at the time. “That’s going to take a bit of time for us, and it’s going to take a bit of money.”
Garg’s tenure was also marked by controversy. In December 2021, he drew widespread criticism after laying off 900 employees during a Zoom call. He subsequently took a monthlong leave while Better’s board commissioned a leadership and cultural assessment, then returned as CEO in January 2022.
The episode also included a leaked email in which Garg referred to employees as “dumb dolphins.” Several senior communications executives resigned following the controversy.
