Monzo acquires Habito to accelerate push into mortgages

UK challenger bank Monzo has agreed to acquire UK mortgage broker Habito in its first major takeover, marking a significant step in its ambition to become a fully fledged financial “super-app”.

While the purchase price has not been disclosed, the deal signals Monzo’s intent to move deeper into the lucrative home-buying market and build a stronger pipeline from savings to home ownership.

Monzo now serves more than 14 million personal customers and around 800,000 business users, with roughly 450,000 already using its in-app homeownership tracking feature. Bringing Habito into the fold allows the challenger bank to turn that engagement into mortgage conversions — a strategic shift that mirrors a wider fintech trend of vertically integrating the savings-to-property journey.

Habito built its reputation as a digital mortgage broker that simplifies the home-buying process through online advice and automated applications. The company held around £1.3m in cash at the end of 2024, but its value lies primarily in its technology, mortgage distribution expertise and customer experience rather than its balance sheet.

For Monzo, the acquisition is about building a long-term customer lifecycle. Digital banks have already proven successful at capturing day-to-day banking and savings deposits, but mortgages represent one of the largest and stickiest financial products a customer can hold. By embedding mortgage comparison and broking directly inside the app, Monzo can guide users from saving for a deposit through to securing a mortgage and managing repayments — significantly increasing customer lifetime value.

Commenting on the deal, Will Rhind, VP Advice & Growth at Habito, said the combination reflects strong cultural alignment between the two fintechs. “Habito has always been about making mortgages simpler, fairer and genuinely better for customers and this incredible milestone feels like a natural next step in scaling that mission,” he said. “I’m excited to see what we can create next by bringing Habito’s mortgage expertise together with Monzo’s reach and brand.”

The strategy echoes Tembo’s 2023 acquisition of Nude, the Lifetime ISA provider focused on first-time buyers. That deal demonstrated how fintechs are increasingly trying to own the “property funnel” end-to-end, from saving and planning to borrowing and long-term financial management.

Monzo has already highlighted the scale of the opportunity, noting that UK homeowners could collectively save billions in interest by making more mortgage overpayments if given better tools and guidance. Integrating Habito could help the bank build those tools natively within its app.

The move also positions Monzo more directly against rivals such as Revolut, which does not offer mortgages but has been expanding aggressively into new product categories as competition intensifies in the race to build Europe’s leading financial super-app.