Just a few months after co-founding fintech start-up LoanDolphin with Rod Dutra in February, Ranin Mendis claims that the start-up has already distributed more than $50 million of mortgages on its online auction pla0074form. Customers can freely enter their basic details and priorities in the platform to create an auction for banks and mortgage brokers to fight for their business.

"The mortgage space is a massive market so if you can crack it then that's obviously a great space to be in," said Toby Heap from H2 Ventures, which has invested $100,000 in LoanDolphin. "What we really liked about LoanDolphin is they're tackling it from a pretty fresh perspective."

Many major lenders are on the platform. Transacting with LoanDolphin is the same as any other lender, with the only difference being the introduction fee of 22 basis points the platform charges for every settled mortgage. This is still lower than the typical 60-basis point upfront commissions brokers receive from banks.

"We haven't reinvented the model. We are optimising the existing channels," Mendis said. "In a way, it's the next phase of what the mortgage market will look like."

More and more fintech companies are targeting the mortgage market. Just last year, online mortgage finance platform Dfinanz was launched, followed last month by a similar platform called Uno. However, Mendis believes that competition is healthy for the sector.

"Competition is great because that will create more engagement with consumers, a bigger market for fintechs," he said. "We want to do $150m by the end of the year in auctions and raise some more funds."

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