Key facts
- Optimal Blue acquired Usherpa, a customer relationship management platform.
- The acquisition aims to integrate pricing intelligence with borrower engagement capabilities.
- Usherpa enables personalized, automated outreach across the homeownership lifecycle.
- Optimal Blue's direct lock functionality now integrates with Fannie Mae’s PE – Whole Loan platform.
- Optimal Blue prices and locks more than one-third of mortgages nationwide.
Optimal Blue, a provider of secondary marketing and pricing technology, announced Monday its acquisition of Usherpa, a customer relationship management platform. The move is intended to bolster Optimal Blue's capabilities in borrower engagement and lead conversion.
Usherpa will be integrated into Optimal Blue's existing systems, aiming to streamline the mortgage origination process by connecting pricing intelligence with personalized borrower outreach. This integration seeks to eliminate the manual work and slow response times often associated with separate pricing and CRM systems.
"By bringing together pricing intelligence and borrower engagement capabilities, we can ensure originators have the tools to strengthen relationships, uncover more opportunities and compete more effectively in any market environment," said Joe Tyrrell, CEO of Optimal Blue. He added that the acquisition is a step towards creating a "single originator command center."
Usherpa's platform facilitates ongoing connections with past customers, prospects, and business partners through automated outreach tailored to the homeownership lifecycle. Erin Wester, chief product officer at Optimal Blue, noted that combining eligibility, pricing intelligence, and borrower engagement in a unified system will allow originators to better understand customer needs and engagement timing.
Optimal Blue emphasized its commitment to an open ecosystem, allowing lenders to continue using their preferred third-party technology providers. The company also announced a new integration between its direct lock functionality and Fannie Mae’s Pricing & Execution – Whole Loan platform. This integration allows lock desk users to execute Fannie Mae best-efforts locks directly within Optimal Blue’s product and pricing workflows, reducing the need to switch between systems and re-enter data.
Optimal Blue's technology is used by approximately 3,500 lenders and connects with nearly 300 investors. The company's platform prices and locks over a third of all mortgages in the U.S. and supports about 40% of loans sold into the secondary market.