Fintel pays £38.4 million for the rest of Mortgage Brain
Fintel has bought the rest of Mortgage Brain for £38.4 million, with £28.9 million in cash at completion and £9.5 million deferred, after a 2024 stake.
Fintel plc, quoted on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), has acquired the remaining equity in Mortgage Brain Holdings Limited for £38.4 million net of cash acquired. The Regulatory News Service announcement on October 23, 2026 says a 5.8% stake was bought in March 2024 for £1.5 million. Cash at completion was £28.9 million, paid from existing financial resources, and £9.5 million is deferred for 18 months. Contracted customers are described as writing about 40% of UK first-charge residential and buy-to-let applications.
The sum is larger than the purchase of Pearson Ham Group's insurance pricing-data business, completed on January 19, 2026 for £11.0 million, with £7.5 million in cash and £3.5 million deferred, Fintel said. Mortgage Brain also brings a two-way link to Plannr, the adviser platform in which Fintel holds 49%. UK sourcing software is being bought for control, while growth capital is still going into US mortgage firms such as Homeward and Valon, and into early AI home-loan tools such as Elio Mortgage.
What the £38.4 million is meant to buy
The holding company pairs the technology business with AE3 Media, a mortgage and protection media, events and insights unit, across sourcing, criteria, affordability, customer relationship management (CRM) and submissions. Fintel expects about £12 million of revenue in 2027, about £10 million from software and data products and about £2 million from events, and about £3.8 million of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). It expects the purchase to be earnings enhancing in the 2027 financial year after about £2 million of interest on extra borrowings and about £1.5 million of extra amortisation.
Sourcing Brain is described as covering over 100 lenders and 98% of the market. That panel coverage and the figure of about 40% of applications measure different things, a searchable lender panel against the share of applications written by contracted customers. The leadership page describes the firm as jointly owned by Barclays, Lloyds Bank, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander. The announcement does not name the selling shareholders.
Mortgage Brain Limited was incorporated on December 18, 1986. Mortgage Brain Holdings Limited, number 03887371, was incorporated on December 2, 1999.
Who stayed on the board
Companies House filings dated October 23, 2026 end eight director appointments as of October 22, 2026: Neil Gordon Wyatt, Danielle Jamie Ann Moore, Cloe Elizabeth Atkinson, Mark St John Daly, Kerri Ann Hartwell, John Gerard Gibbons, Jamie William Marchington and Andrew Ian Tilsley. The leadership page lists Neil Wyatt as chief commercial officer and Cloë Atkinson as chief operating officer. Matthew Lloyd Timmins and David Thompson, Fintel's chief executive and chief financial officer in the announcement, joined the board the same day, and the registered office is now Fintel House in Huddersfield, the address Fintel publishes.
Syed Zahid Hussain Bilgrami, named Zahid Bilgrami in the announcement, was appointed a director on April 27, 2021 and remains, and he will lead Software and Data. The site says that before this role he led Defaqto through a private-equity-backed management buyout and into Fintel. Alastair Brown, the chief financial officer on that page, and Peter Anthony Hill, a director since May 9, 2019, also remain.
"Mortgage Brain is a high-quality software business with strong recurring revenues, attractive growth characteristics and a leading position in the UK intermediary market," Matt Timmins, chief executive of Fintel, said in the announcement.
Where the volume already sits
Simplybiz Mortgages, part of Fintel, said on April 9, 2026 that lending rose 19.8% to £28.4 billion in 2025, from £23.7 billion in 2024, and that market share moved from 4.68% to 4.74%. Martin Reynolds, its chief executive, said adoption of Mortgage Brain was growing as the partnership entered its second year, in that newsroom note.
Where the leverage moves
At June 30, 2026 Fintel reported net debt of £38.2 million, leverage of 1.4 times adjusted EBITDA, £7.3 million of cash and £76.5 million of headroom on a £120 million revolving credit facility. Software and Data revenue in that half was £20.2 million, up 9.6%. Proforma leverage is put at 2.54 times immediately after completion, on a gross drawn position of £80 million, the £9.5 million deferral, group cash and leases under International Financial Reporting Standard 16 (IFRS 16), and the year-end figure is expected below 2.5 times.
About £10 million of software revenue in 2027 would sit beside a half that already produced £20.2 million, so the interest and amortisation decide whether earnings rise. The operating test is the Plannr link and a renewed long-term partnership for AI-enabled workflow tools across more than 3,000 adviser licences.
The 2027 revenue and EBITDA figures are management expectations in the regulatory announcement, and the half-year figures are unaudited. Share prices can move after a regulatory announcement. Readers should check the primary filings and take their own advice before an investment decision.
Reporting by Rick Steves. Filed 24 October 2026, 21:02 GMT.
Senior Reporter, Regulation and Fintech
Rick Steves has seen business and economics through many lenses. He joined the financial services industry in 2009, and has been a financial journalist since 2011.
