Amazon and Better.com’s unlikely pairing

Last week, my good friend and and Equity podcast co-host Natasha Mascarenhas and I reported that Amazon had struck a deal with embattled online mortgage lender Better.com to offer up a new benefit to employees. Specifically, Better.com announced it was launching Equity Unlocker, a program that allows employees to use their vested equity as collateral for a down payment when trying to buy homes. Amazon employees in Florida, New York and Washington State will be the first to try the tool. Unique about the program, according to Better.com, is that employees will have the ability to finance their homes without actually selling their shares, only needing to pledge vested equity. The news, quite frankly, came as a bit of a shock to those of us who have been following the goings-on at Better.com. For the unfamiliar, the fintech company has had its fair share of struggles that have cast doubt on its future. Last May, TechCrunch reported on a filing that revealed that Better.com had swung to a loss of more than $300 million in 2021 after a rapid-fire decline in business brought on largely by a slowdown in the housing market and a surge in mortgage interest rates. Then in the first quarter of 2022 alone, Better.com recorded a staggering net loss of $327.7 million, according to an SEC filing.