E171 - James Bowe - Co-Founder - OwnHome

Our guest this week is James Bowe, the Co-Founder of OwnHome alongside Tim Harley. With shelter as a fundamental human need, OwnHome aims to transform access to homeownership in Australia, allowing aspirational homeowners to enter the property market without a 20% deposit, helping them get there for just 2% upfront. 

With enviable and impressive resumes and backgrounds across consulting and consumer tech with the likes of Bain & Company, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Macquarie, Wise Ltd, and Herbert Smith Freehills between them, James and Tim were driven to start OwnHome after reflecting on some of the biggest challenges they personally face (financial security being at the top of the pile) and how they want to spend the brief period of time they have left on this planet. 

After participating in Commonwealth Bank’s accelerator program from overseas, working their day jobs during UK day time and the accelerator program from 10pm - 4am, they finished in the top spot for the accelerator and received $150,000 funding. Now armed with little to no excuses to jump into OwnHome full time, the pair returned to Australia, and raised their seed round while in hotel quarantine in Sydney. Own Home has since received backing from Entrez, Global Founders Capital, Square Peg, and Commonwealth Bank's X15 Ventures and recently raised $31 million in their series A round. 

OwnHome combines technology and human services for a seamless experience. Through OwnHome, aspiring homeowners can wave goodbye to renting forever and forgo intergenerational support as the only avenue to owning a home. Their offer allows those with just 2% deposit on the home value access to a licensed buyer’s agent, split loan structures, choice of home loan and comprehensive support through the process. Over the past two and a half years, they have received well over 20,000 applications and supported 50 families in becoming homeowners. Across the next 12 months, OwnHome aspired to support $500 million of property purchases in the next 12 months. 

Quickfire Round 

Book: Amp It Up!, Frank Slootman & Black Belt, Joseph Healy
Podcast: All-In
Newsource: The Economist, Twitter
App: Twitter
Productivity Tool: Siri
CEO: Jeff Bezos
TV Show: Succession
TEDTalk Topic: Solving the challenges of housing affordability in Australia  

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