As featured on Housing Wire
Legacy Group Capital announces the acquisition of Boulder-based fintech Rook Capital, creator of the Shared Value Investment™. The acquisition will accelerate Legacy’s innovative work in serving the housing needs of “the missing middle.”
As Home Equity Investments (HEI) evolve and grow into a foundational component of the real estate market, the need to empower builders with a buyer-focused HEI purchase solution is paramount. Rook Capital’s award-winning platform provides the best-in-class solution for purchase-focused HEI, bringing together and aligning builders and buyers.
“We fell in love with Rook Capital immediately,” said Scott Rerucha, Legacy CEO. “The innovative HEI offering, the world-class technology, and a channel based strategy were a perfect fit for Legacy, “ he added. Rook Capital co-founder and CEO Ed Messman said, “Bringing together builders, investors, and home-buyers allows the Rook vision to scale at a pace we’d never have been able to do without Legacy’s know-how, heft, and experience.”
Housing is front and center in the news today, as interest rates climb, supply tightens, and tens of millions of American families are unable to find or afford the right house. In addition, traditional housing finance solutions are often inflexible for families on the cusp of being able to buy a home. Rook’s approach to HEI creates a win-win for buyers and investors while offering an innovative solution for local builders to move inventory faster and thus build more housing units.
As part of the acquisition, Rook co-founder Ed Messman will join Legacy as Chief Investment Officer and co-founder Kevin Cawley will join as Chief Technology Officer. With its recent $20 million growth capital financing and the addition of veteran real estate leaders to its senior leadership team, Legacy Group Capital is poised to accelerate its growth plan and expand into six new markets over the next 3 years.
About Legacy Group Capital
Legacy Group Capital (Legacy) is an integrated real estate company focused on community-based engagement in private lending and real estate investing. Legacy empowers homebuilders, real estate investors, homeowners, and homebuyers with a flexible lending and investment platform. The Legacy platform offers unique and creative financial products that extend beyond standard guidelines. These products encompass acquisition loans, construction loans, rehab financing, and bridge loans that all reflect our common-sense approach to lending.
Currently, Legacy works with hundreds of homebuilders, brokers and mortgage loan officers while also serving thousands of investors across five real estate investment funds with access to over $500 million in equity and debt capital.
About Rook Capital
Rook is an innovative fintech company focused on widening home ownership and solving housing affordability. Rook’s Shared Value Investment™ brings homebuyers, investors, and the housing ecosystem into partnership with full life-cycle alignment. Rook has developed key partnerships with community banks, credit unions, community foundations and real estate companies. Rook raised capital from a syndicate of strategic investors including LL Funds, First Mile Ventures, Kickstart Fund, Service Provider Capital, and Tango Ventures.
