Enterprise software and services company Backshop, Inc. announced last month that eight CMBS, portfolio and B-note lenders have started using Backshop's cUnderwriter to manage their commercial real estate loan production.
The lenders - AIG Global Investment Group, Countrywide Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc., CWCapital, LLC, Eurohypo AG, Gramercy Capital Corp., IXIS Real Estate Capital Inc., RBS Greenwich Capital and Timarron Capital - represent approximately 40% of the market players participating in the $100 billion CMBS market, according to a statement released by Backshop.
Founded in 2000, Backshop is a web-based platform that allows lenders to conduct pipeline, underwriting, securitization and online document management.
"It lowers costs dramatically by putting everything in one spot and putting all the analytics in an integrated system," said Jim Flaherty, president and CEO of the company.
Currently, Backshop caters to issuers - the people who originate the loan, aggregate all the collateral, and securitize the loans, said Flaherty. Going forward, the company will target the retail side, the individuals who originate the debt, he said.
"Going north from here, we want to target the brokers, the appraisers - people who are actually out there finding and sourcing the deals and presenting them to the money to get them funded," said Flaherty. "We plan on launching that retail version before the end of the year," he said.
After Backshop's retail version is launched, it will be a much different company, Flaherty explained. When the company is under 20 clients, it does not change to a great degree, but by opening up a retail version, Backshop expects to gain thousands of clients.
"The market for that business is 20,000 people," said Flaherty.
Flaherty, the founder of Backshop, also started GateCapital, an advisory services firm in 1997. After it was acquired in 2000, Falherty capitalized Backshop.
"What I took out of the partnership with Gate was the software," he said. "We turned the software into a web-based enterprise software in 2001 and it wasn't until the end of 2002 that [Backshop] got its first licensing deal - and that was with RBS Greenwich Capital."
Since its inception, Backshop technology has helped lenders securitize more than 2,000 loans totaling $20 billion, according to the company's profile.
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