Optimal Blue is on the market, according to a news report from Barron’s.
The publication reported last night that Optimal Blue’s owner, GTCR, is gearing up to put Plano, Texas-based Optimal Blue up for sale. Barron’s cited unnamed bankers and private-equity executives who were “familiar with the situation.”
Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR purchased Optimal Blue almost four years ago to the day for $350 million as part of a leveraged buyout, according to Crunchbase. The company is expected to sell for $1 billion, Barron’s said.
Optimal Blue’s online marketplace aims to connect originators, investors, and providers in the mortgage industry with each other. More than $750 billion of transactions are processed across the platform each year, facilitating a number of secondary market interactions such as pricing, locking, hedging, and trading of mortgage loans.
The company at one time was primarily focused on building products that help mortgage lenders comply with federal laws and regulations on fair lending. But it now describes itself as “the leading provider of secondary marketing solutions and data services in the mortgage industry.”
Founded in 2002, Optimal Blue raised $22.4 million in venture capital in 2013. Today, the marketplace has over 213,000 users and produces more than 240 million pricing quotes a year, according to Barron’s. It has $110 million in annual revenue.
Neither GTCR nor Optimal Blue have yet responded to requests for comment.
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