Blockchain-based mortgage platform Acre has secured £5 million in funding from insurance giant Aviva and financial advisor Sesame Bankhall Group (SBG).

The FinTech, which uses blockchain to build a “record of transaction” of the elements of the mortgage application process, says it will use the investment to grow the platform.

As part of the new arrangement, Acre will open its mortgage, protection and general insurance platform up to SBG Brokers, one of the largest group of mortgage brokers in the UK, which handled £41 billion worth of mortgages in 2018, via 10,000 financial advisers.

As a result of the distribution partnership with SBG, Acre will become one of the largest users of blockchain in the UK, the company claimed.

Justus Brown, chief executive and co-founder of Acre Software, said: “Buying a house is one of the biggest financial transactions a person can make, yet the process is slow, opaque and fragmented, which is increasingly out of step with consumer expectations.”

He added that Acre’s technology was aimed at “levelling the playing field for brokers using innovative tech, while putting an informed consumer at the centre of the mortgage process”.

Ben Luckett, managing director at Aviva Ventures, added: “Acre is a fantastic example of the kind of FinTech business we want to help nurture – they have identified a market which could be improved through technology and they’ve gone for it by securing a very large distribution partner, which is often the missing ingredient for success.”

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