The round was led by new investor Gresham House Ventures, alongside existing investors Goodwater Capital, Aviva Investors, McPike Family Office, Love Ventures, and Ascension, as well as new participation from the British Business Bank via Ascension.
Tembo said the funding will be used to grow its app and end-to-end home buying platform.
It added that it was on track to have 20% market share of the first-time buyer market within two years. The firm’s current market share stands at 3%.
Tembo was founded in 2020 by Richard Dana, Eddie Ross and Geoff Wright as a specialist digital mortgage broker with a focus on improving affordability for those under-served by traditional lending.
The firm is now a digital savings and mortgage platform that offers savings products like Lifetime ISAs (LISAs), cash ISAs and fixed rate ISAs that facilitate saving for a deposit.
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It has also recently launched a HomeSaver deal, which is a combined savings and mortgage deal that gives customers a rate of 5.24% on their savings when they use its free digital mortgage advice service to buy or remortgage their home.
The app also supports customers’ mortgage journeys, allowing them to track their mortgage live and showing the best remortgage rates from existing lenders and the wider market.
Tembo has partnered with over 100 organisations, including Aviva and Sage, to integrate mortgage guidance and affordability solutions into customer journeys.
Richard Dana (pictured), co-founder and CEO of Tembo, said: “This investment is a major milestone for Tembo as we continue building a platform that doesn’t just help people find and secure a mortgage, but puts them genuinely in control of their journey to homeownership, from the first pound they save to the day they get the keys.
“The time has come for a more digital, data-led approach to consumer mortgage and wealth journeys, and we believe Tembo is perfectly positioned to become the market leader over the coming years as more people look for a smarter, end-to-end way to get on and move up the property ladder.”
Rohit Mathur, investment partner at Gresham House, said: “Homeownership in the UK has become one of the hardest financial milestones to reach, despite a £1.6trn mortgage market. Homebuyers, especially first-time buyers, are expected to save more, faster, while navigating an increasingly complex mortgage landscape.
“Tembo brings those pieces together in one platform, helping people save smarter with its innovative products, and access mortgages with confidence – all with a digital-first experience. We see Tembo as a critical platform for improving access to homeownership in the UK, which is exactly why we chose to lead this round.”
