EXCLUSIVE— Digital mortgage company Better Mortgage has displayed rapid growth over the last year, originating $157 million in  purchase mortgages during 2017: a 1500% increase from the $10 million it originated in 2016.

Most of this funding (75%, according to figures, it released last week) went to millennial homebuyers, the majority of which were also first-time home buyers.

While the company didn’t originally open its platform with millennials in mind, the company was looking for customers who might have been overlooked by traditional mortgage companies due to stronger risk—which wound up being mostly millennials, Eric Wilson, director of operations for Better Mortgage, told Bank Innovation.

“With [millennials] having student debt, having a larger portion of their income going to student loans, month over month, more than their parents; they have rent amounts that are substantially higher than their parents, which leads to lower savings,” Wilson said of the millennial home buyer. “Certainly, we’re building a platform to make [buying a home] affordable.”

Better’s platform is built to ease the mortgage process, using tools and features that seem uniquely suited to a millennial borrower (though as stated previously, that was not the company’s initial intention, said Wilson).

While the company’s tools may lack the frills of some other mortgage companies chasing millennials—including some that are offering to pay a portion of the customer’s student loans—its 2017 growth certainly speaks to their effectiveness.

Wilson cites three features as particular reasons for the company’s growth: Better Appraisal, Better Offer, and Better Savings.

Each of these features is designed to circumvent a particular part of the mortgage process, with its appraisal process occurring before a borrower puts an offer on a home, a process that is currently live in four markets and set to go live in seven more, Wilson said. These markets include the Greater Seattle area, San Francisco, San Diego, and Atlanta, Georgia, he said.

Meanwhile, its Better Offer service allows it expedite the tedious process of approving a borrower for a home purchase.

“Leveraging our digital [verification] process, we can approve a customer to purchase a home in 24 hours,” Wilson said, which is a large jump from the industry average—a typical cash offer on a home takes between 30 and 60 days to process on average, according to Wilson.

Lastly, its Better Savings feature allows the company to make certain discounts on loans, which, combined with the previous two features, can bring a fair measure of financial relief to the millennial borrower looking to purchase a home.

The company’s average loan amount for 2017 was just under $350,000, according to Better. Its $157 million in purchase mortgage originations funded about 450 home buyers, Wilson said.

The company is planning to keep its momentum in 2018, Wilson said, and has already made a decent start. For the month of January, Better funded $15 million in purchase origination, according to the company.

To learn more about digital mortgages and home lending, join us on March 5-6, 2018 at the Parc 55 in San Francisco for Bank Innovation 2018. Click here to request an invitation.