Online advisers such as Habito are eyeing opportunities in the B2B space as Burrow founder Pradeep Raman argued that the tech offerings of digital brokers “still have a long way to go”. Isshan Malhi, founder and chief executive officer of Trussle, our portfolio company,, said that while he recognised the potential opportunities in offering tech platforms to lenders and brokers directly, he saw the approach as a “distraction” from its consumer-facing proposition.
Speaking to Mortgage Solutions, founder and chief executive officer of digital adviser Burrow Pradeep Raman argued the technology in the digital advisory space still lacks the necessary sophistication to provide the fully automated end-to-end mortgage service envisioned by talks of ‘robo-advice’. However, Raman said that this is by no means a death sentence for digital advisers – because the tech platforms developed by the various online brokers could automate and streamline all the other parts of the mortgage process – leaving intermediaries free to perform the “most valuable” part of their role in giving clients advice. Model issues Raman suggested that digital advisers cannot provide a platform that fulfils the entire mortgage journey because the tech cannot yet perform the adviser’s role in recommending the best product for a particular client – especially when the client’s circumstances become more complex.
