- OakNorth has participated in a senior financing club loan alongside HSBC and Investec to support the acquisition of Mortgage Support Services Ltd (MSS) by BetterHome Group;
- Founded in 1988 and headquartered in the UK, Stonebridge is one of the country’s leading mortgage and protection networks;
- The acquisition supports BetterHome Group’s ambition to build a scaled UK intermediary platform;
- The transaction reflects OakNorth’s growing appetite for leveraged finance and corporate lending opportunities in high-quality, technology-enabled financial services businesses with strong recurring revenue and structural market tailwinds.
London, Tuesday 15th September, 2026: OakNorth, the digital bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, has joined a three-bank senior lending club loan with HSBC and Investec to provide a financing facility to BetterHome Group. The capital will support the acquisition of Mortgage Support Services Ltd (MSS), the parent company of Stonebridge and a range of mortgage, protection and technology businesses.
Founded in 1988, Stonebridge supports over 1,400 advisers across more than 700 appointed representative (AR) firms. It operates as the FCA regulatory principal for its AR network – providing compliance infrastructure, lender and insurer panel access, business development support, and training. It also operates an entirely proprietary technology platform, Revolution, which has been built and refined over more than two decades and is used by its AR firms for case management, compliance monitoring, and client servicing. Stonebridge has been the fastest-growing UK mortgage network for four consecutive years, with revenue growing at approximately 19% CAGR between FY24 and FY26.
The acquisition is being made by BetterHome Group, the South Africa-based homeownership platform founded by Rudi Botha. The business has pioneered mortgage aggregation in South Africa since 2000, and today commands over 35% market share in South African mortgage origination across a business spanning home finance, insurance, real estate and property technology.
The acquisition of MSS marks BetterHome Group’s further investment in the UK mortgage market, building on its investment in Josewin, the parent company of HLPartnership, in 2024. It is intended to create a Top 3 UK intermediary mortgage network alongside HLPartnership, with more than 2,600 advisers, 1,200 firms and over £30 billion in annual mortgage lending. Stonebridge and HLPartnership will continue to operate as separate networks, each retaining its own brand, proposition and culture.
Rudi Botha, CEO of BetterHome Group, commented: “We had a tight timeline on this transaction and needed a lending club that could move decisively without sacrificing rigour. Our businesses – BetterHome, HLPartnership and Stonebridge – are entrepreneurial by nature, so working with a bank that understands and supports entrepreneurs has been a great fit. OakNorth went from credit approval to executed documents in a single week, and the quality of engagement from the team throughout was genuinely impressive. They understood what we’re building, asked the right questions and got on with it. That’s exactly the kind of banking partnership we want alongside us as we scale this platform in the UK.”
Mark Challis, Debt Finance Director at OakNorth, continued: “Stonebridge has built something that’s very difficult to replicate – a market-leading compliance reputation, a proprietary technology platform with over two decades of development behind it, and an adviser network that grows and retains at better rates than any of its peers. The structural backdrop for this transaction is also compelling: c.70% of UK mortgage lending is now intermediated, nearly all of it on an advised basis, and the ongoing migration of smaller Directly Authorised firms into AR networks – accelerated by Consumer Duty and increasing regulatory complexity – continues to grow the addressable market for scaled network operators. Rudi and the BHG team bring real ambition and deep expertise in this market. We’re very pleased to be part of the financing consortium supporting this next chapter.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
About OakNorth
Launched in September 2015, OakNorth is the bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. It was founded to address the persistent funding gap facing lower mid-market businesses – a segment that accounts for a significant share of economic output yet remains underserved by traditional banks.
To date, OakNorth has provided over $22bn in lending to thousands of entrepreneur-led businesses across the UK and US, supporting the creation of more than 70,000 jobs and generating more than $53bn in economic value. Throughout multiple economic cycles, the bank has maintained a highly disciplined approach to credit, delivering performance metrics that place it among the top 1% of commercial banks globally.
It is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.
Visit www.oaknorth.co.uk for more information.