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A year after being acquired by Constellation Software, mortgage tech provider Dark Matter Technologies continues to build its roster of clients after expanding its product lineup and announcing plans to onboard a new CEO in April.
Dark Matter — the company carved out of Intercontinental Exchange Inc.’s 2023 acquisition of Black Knight in order to satisfy antitrust regulators — has signed Shore United Bank as an Empower Loan Origination System (LOS) client.
A community bank serving Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, Shore United Bank will also use a selection of AIVA AI virtual assistant solutions from Dark Matter, the companies’ executives said in a Nov. 25 announcement.
Empower LOS “takes a task-based approach rather than a linear approach to automating loan production, allowing multiple processes to run concurrently with minimal lender intervention,” Dark Matter executives said. “By tapping employees only as needed to manage exceptions, the Empower LOS streamlines origination workflows, resulting in significant time and cost savings.”
Dark Matter’s AIVA AI virtual assistant solutions include document management, income and asset verification, quality control automation, compliance monitoring and business intelligence.
Corey Galinsky
“This partnership reinforces our commitment to making the mortgage process smoother and more efficient, helping our customers achieve their homeownership dreams with greater ease and confidence,” Shore United EVP Corey Galinsky said in a statement.
Dark Matter announced a similar 7-year agreement in October with Sandy, Utah-based RanLife Home Loans.
Credit unions are another avenue for growth for Jacksonville, Florida-based Dark Matter, which joined the American Credit Union Mortgage Association (ACUMA) as an affiliate member last year.
Soon after that, Dark Matter announced a deal with Hampden, Maine-based CUSO Home Lending, a credit union service organization and licensed mortgage company, making Empower LOS available to its credit union owners.
Four credit unions that are partners in CUSO Home Lending agreed to use Empower’s joint-venture feature, allowing them to put their own branding and pricing on mortgages originated through CUSO Home Lending’s shared services model.
Credit union clients announced by Dark Matter in the past 12 months include Publix Employees Federal Credit Union (Lakeland, Florida), Patelco Credit Union (Dublin, California), Monterra Credit Union (Redwood City, California) and Truity Credit Union (Bartlesville, Oklahoma).
Under new ownership
Formerly known as Black Knight Origination Technologies LLC, Dark Matter is one of more than 800 subsidiaries of Constellation Software Inc., a Toronto-based, publicly traded company with a market capitalization of $72.3 billion USD ($101.5 billion CAD).
Constellation Software acquired Black Knight’s Empower LOS and AIVA AI assistant last year in a deal that also included Black Knight’s Optimal Blue mortgage marketplace, LendingSpace correspondent lending system, and Exchange network of service providers for lenders and servicers.
Dark Matter added the NOVA loan origination system (LOS) to its product lineup in September, which the company said will enable it “to offer two distinct LOS solutions and cater to a more diverse range of lender business models.”
Another Constellation subsidiary, Constellation Mortgage Solutions, launched NOVA LOS in 2022, proclaiming it to be the new “gold standard in mortgage origination tech.”
Sean Dugan
“With the alignment of the Empower LOS and the NOVA LOS under the Dark Matter brand, we’re creating a powerhouse in loan origination technology,” Dark Matter Chief Revenue Officer Sean Dugan said in a statement.
CEO transition plan
Last month Dark Matter announced that Dugan will take the CEO reins from Rich Gagliano in April, a succession plan aimed at ensuring “continuity, stability and uninterrupted progress toward the company’s strategic roadmap and long-term goals.”
Dugan’s 25 years of mortgage industry expertise include 14 years working alongside Gagliano at Dark Matter and its predecessor, Black Knight Origination Technologies.
Gagliano is looking to spend more time with family, but will continue to be involved with Dark Matter in a new role: executive chairman.
Rich Gagliano
“I am incredibly proud of what we’ve built at Dark Matter, and I am confident the company’s best days are ahead,” Gagliano said, in a statement. “After years of working with Sean, I have absolute confidence in his leadership and in his team’s readiness to execute on the strategy we’ve developed together. I look forward to supporting Sean and our clients as I transition to executive chairman, knowing that Dark Matter is in the most capable of hands.”
Since relaunching as Dark Matter in September 2023, the company has assembled a leadership team that includes Mike Housch (chief risk and information security officer); Stephanie Durflinger (chief product officer); Tony Fox (chief of client engagement); and Vikas Rao (deputy chief product officer).
‘Tech’s Berkshire Hathaway’
Dark Matter’s parent company, Constellation Software, is a large and growing behemoth, dubbed “tech’s Berkshire Hathaway,” by The Economist, which rates the company as “the world’s best acquirer of tech firms.”
Constellation Software acquires, manages and generates revenue from a growing stable of more than 800 software companies organized under six operating groups. The company’s subsidiaries employ more than 56,000 people and serve more than 100 vertical markets including many niches like event management, forestry, public libraries, daycare, and RV and marine dealers, according to Constellation’s most recent annual report.
Dark Matter is part of Constellation Software’s Perseus Group, which is also the home of real estate technology providers like Market Leader, Top Producer, Constellation1, Zurple, SmartZip and TORCHx.
Like Berkshire Hathaway, Constellation “does not integrate newly acquired companies or parachute in fresh managers,” The Economist noted in a Nov. 30, 2023 company profile. “It is content to leave day-to-day operations to the existing leadership,” using cash that flows from its subsidiaries to buy more new businesses.
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