ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Our business involves significant risks, some of which are described below. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes. Any of the following risks could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, or prospects, and could cause the trading price of our Class A common stock to decline. Our business, financial condition, results of operations, or prospects could also be harmed by risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently do not believe are material. If any of the risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects could be adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. Our Risk Factors are not guarantees that no such conditions exist as of the date of this report and should not be interpreted as an affirmative statement that such risks or conditions have not materialized, in whole or in part.
Risk Factors Summary
The risks and uncertainties to which our business is subject include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Our business is substantially dependent on revenue from the financial services industry and is therefore subject to risks impacting the mortgage industry and the larger financial services industry;
• Increases in market interest rates have, and will likely continue to, adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations;
• Unfavorable conditions in our industry or the global economy or reductions in technology spending could limit our ability to grow our business and adversely affect our financial conditions and results of operations;
• We have a history of net losses, and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability in the future;
• A large percentage of our revenue is concentrated with a small number of key customers, and if our relationships with any of these key customers were to be terminated or the level of business with them significantly reduced over time, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future prospects would be adversely affected;
• If we fail to retain our existing customers or to acquire new customers in a cost-effective manner, or if our customers fail to maintain their utilization of our products and services, our revenue may decrease and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected;
• We face intense competition, and if we are unable to compete effectively, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected;
• We have a limited operating history in an evolving industry, and have experienced fluctuating growth rates in recent periods, which makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and may increase the risk that we will not be successful;
• Our business, financial condition, and results of operations depend on our ability to adapt to technological change as well as global trends in the way customers access cloud-based banking software and successfully introduce new and enhanced products, services and business models;
• Our results of operations have fluctuated from period to period, which has caused the market price of our Class A common stock to fluctuate;
• We often rely on self-reporting of completed transactions by our customers due to our primarily success-based model, which can make it difficult to estimate and forecast revenue;
• We have in the past, and may in the future, make strategic acquisitions or dispositions or we may enter into partnerships, strategic collaborations, joint ventures or licensing agreements and investments, and we face risks related to execution and the integration of such acquisitions or dispositions or investments and the management of any associated growth;
• The impairment of intangible assets, goodwill, and other assets arising from any future acquisitions or investments may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations;
• A cyberattack, security breach or incident affecting us or the third parties we rely on or partner with could expose us or our customers and consumers to a risk of loss or misuse of confidential information and have an adverse effect on our reputation, brand, business, financial condition, and results of operations;
• We may require additional capital to support business growth, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all;
• We have identified two material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and may identify additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, which may result in material misstatements of our consolidated financial statements or cause us to fail to meet our periodic reporting obligations;
• We may be subject to claims, lawsuits, government investigations, and other proceedings that may adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations;
• Our customers are, and in some cases we are or may be, subject to, and we facilitate compliance with, a variety of federal, state, and local laws, including those related to consumer protection and financial services;
• We depend on the interoperability of our platform across third-party applications and services that we do not control;
• Failure to adequately protect our intellectual property could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations;
• The trading price of our Class A common stock may be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment; and
• The multi-class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting power with Nima Ghamsari, Head of Blend, Co-Founder, and Chair of our board of directors, which will severely limit your ability to influence or direct the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of our board of directors, the adoption of amendments to our certificate of incorporation (the “Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation”) and amended and restated bylaws, and the approval of any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets or other major corporate transaction;
• The holders of our Series A Preferred Stock will be entitled to vote on an as-converted to Class A common stock basis and have rights to approve certain actions. Additionally, Haveli may exercise influence over us through its ability to designate a member of our board of directors;
• The issuance of shares of our Series A Preferred Stock reduces the relative voting power of holders of our Class A common stock, and the conversion of those shares into shares of our Class A common stock would dilute the ownership of Class A common stockholders and may adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock; and
• Our Series A Preferred Stock has rights, preferences and privileges that are not held by, and are preferential to the rights of, our Class A common stockholders, which could adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Business and Operations
Our business is substantially dependent on revenue from the financial services industry and is therefore subject to risks impacting the mortgage industry and the larger financial services industry.
Our financial prospects depend significantly on the financial services industry ecosystem. Significant volatility and instability among banks and financial institutions has had and could in the future have an adverse effect on our business, financial results and results of operations. To the extent our financial services customers or potential customers fail or experience further downturns due to challenges in the general macroeconomic environment, including as a result of increased tariffs, adverse impacts on trade relations, an economic downturn in the U.S. or globally, or adverse conditions in the financial or credit markets, these firms may decrease the amount of money they spend with us, or stop spending with us entirely. In addition, increased competition to financial services firms from challenger banks and technology disruptors as well as decreases in consumer demand in the financial services industry in general could adversely affect the demand for our product and, in turn, the number of customers and their consumers using our platform.
The mortgage market is heavily influenced by government policies and overall economic conditions. The real estate environment, including interest rates and the general economic environment, typically impacts demand for mortgage and mortgage-related products. As a large portion of our revenue is driven by mortgage and mortgage-related transaction volumes, changes in mortgage origination volumes have had, and are likely to continue to have, material effects on our business. The number of mortgage loans and refinances has been and may continue to be affected by negative trends in the general economy in the United States and abroad, including conditions resulting from changes in gross domestic product, financial and credit market fluctuations, the potential recessionary environment and macroeconomic uncertainty, including as a result of increased tariffs, adverse impacts on trade relations, an economic downturn in the U.S. or globally, increased interest rates, the availability and cost of credit, reductions in business and consumer confidence, stock market volatility, increased unemployment, political turmoil, pandemics, natural catastrophes, warfare, such as ongoing global and the potential effects of sanctions, and terrorist attacks on the United States, Europe, the Middle East region, the Asia Pacific region or elsewhere, and any such decrease in mortgage origination volumes is likely to have an impact on our business.
Increases in market interest rates have, and will likely continue to, adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Increasing interest rates have adversely impacted the spending levels of consumers and their ability and willingness to borrow money. In most cases, higher interest rates have led to higher loan rates charged to consumers, which has adversely affected the ability of our customers to generate volume and in turn, the number of transactions enabled through our platform and thus our ability to generate revenue from such transactions. As a result of high interest rates in recent periods, consumers and financial services firms were less inclined to borrow money for mortgages, and to refinance existing mortgages, which resulted in less engagement with our platform and/or our services. While, more recently, the Federal Reserve has lowered the federal funds rate significantly, any further actions by the Federal Reserve or consumers are speculative and difficult to predict with certainty. Further notwithstanding any improvement in interest rates, we have experienced in the past, and may continue to experience in the future, a reduction in the volume of transactions enabled through our platform. In addition, while we have cut expenses to align our business to the operating environment and as we continue to evaluate our expense base going forward, revenue generated from such transactions may faster than our ability to reduce expenses, and such have and may continue to affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Unfavorable conditions in our industry or the global economy or reductions in technology spending could limit our ability to grow our business and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
Our results of operations have and are expected to continue to vary based on the impact of changes in our industry or the U.S. economy on us or our customers. Our revenue growth and potential profitability depend on demand for our solutions. Economic uncertainties have and could continue to adversely affect our business and results of operations. Negative conditions in the general economy in the United States and abroad, including conditions resulting from changes in gross domestic product growth, financial and credit market fluctuations, the potential recessionary environment and macroeconomic uncertainty, including as a result of increased tariffs and other adverse impacts on trade relations, increased interest rates, the availability and cost of credit, reductions in business and consumer confidence, stock market volatility, increased unemployment, political turmoil, pandemics, natural catastrophes, warfare, such as ongoing global conflicts and the potential effects of sanctions, and terrorist attacks on the United States, Europe, the Middle East region, the Asia Pacific region or elsewhere, has caused and could further cause a decrease in lending activity and business investments, including spending on technology, and as a result, affect the growth of our business. To the extent our solutions are perceived by customers and potential customers as , or too to deploy or migrate to, our revenue may be affected by or reductions in general technology spending. Also, competitors, some of whom are larger and more established than we are, may respond to market conditions by lowering prices and attempting to lure away our customers. We cannot predict the timing, or duration of any economic , or recovery, generally or within any particular industry. If the economic conditions of the general economy or markets in which we operate from present levels, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be affected.
We have a history of net losses, and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability in the future.
Historically, we have incurred net losses, and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability in the future. As of December 31, 2025, we had an accumulated deficit of $1,391.8 million. We expect to incur significant costs and invest significant additional funds towards sustaining and growing our business and operating as a public company. Further, we have expended and expect to continue to expend substantial financial and other resources on product development, including investments in our product, engineering, and design teams and the development of new products and new functionality for our existing products and our platform; our technology infrastructure, including systems architecture, management tools, scalability, availability, performance, and security, as well as disaster recovery measures; our sales, marketing, and customer success organizations; acquisitions or strategic investments; and general administration, including legal and accounting expenses. These efforts may be more costly than we expect and may not result in increased revenue or growth in our business. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will be able our projected cost savings in connection with any of our previously announced workforce reductions. In the past, we have also incurred charges that have impacted our U.S. GAAP financial results. In addition, to increase our revenue sufficiently to keep pace with our investments and other expenses could prevent us from or maintaining or cash flows on a consistent basis. In light of increasing interest rates and other factors, the volume of transactions through our platform and, as a result, revenue generated from such transactions, may faster than our ability to reduce expenses. Additionally, in an inflationary environment, our costs may increase, and we may not be to increase the pricing of our products accordingly, which could impact our financial performance. If we are to address these risks and as we encounter them, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be affected.
A large percentage of our revenue is concentrated with a small number of key customers, and if our relationships with any of these key customers were to be terminated or the level of business with them significantly reduced over time, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future prospects would be adversely affected.
Historically, a relatively small number of our customers have accounted for a significant portion of our revenue. For 2025, our top five customers accounted for 39% of revenue, and as of December 31, 2025, we had 25 customers generating more than $1 million in annual revenue, which represented 75% of revenue in 2025. The concentration of a significant portion of our business and transaction volume with a limited number of customers, or type of customer or industry, exposes us disproportionately to any of those customers choosing to no longer partner with us or choosing to partner with a competitor, to the economic performance or market share of those customers or industry, including as a result of challenger banks or technology disruptors, or to any events, circumstances, or risks affecting such customers or industry. Additionally, because we do not have long-term contractual financial commitments with many of our customers, a material modification in the financial operations of a key customer could affect our transaction volume with that customer and therefore our revenue growth. Further, our customers may engage in mergers, acquisitions or consolidations with each other, our competitors or with third parties, any of which could be disruptive to our existing and prospective relationships with our customers and could adversely affect our revenue. If we are unable to continue to increase the number of other customers on our platform or if any of our key customers
were to suspend, limit, or cease their operations or otherwise terminate their relationship with us or lose market share, our business, financial condition, and results of operations would be adversely affected.
If we fail to retain our existing customers or to acquire new customers in a cost-effective manner, or if our customers fail to maintain their utilization of our products and services, our revenue may decrease and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our ability to maintain and grow our business will depend in part on our success in maintaining successful relationships with our customers. If any of our customers were to suspend, limit, or cease their operations or otherwise terminate their relationships with us, the number of transactions enabled through our platform could decrease and our revenue and revenue growth rates could be adversely affected. In addition, having a diversified mix of customers is important to mitigate risk associated with changing consumer spending behavior, economic conditions, and other factors that may affect a particular type of financial services firm or industry. While we expect that the revenue from our largest customers will decrease over time as a percentage of our total revenue as we generate more revenue from other customers, we also believe that revenue from our largest customers may continue to account for a significant portion of our revenue, at least in the near term.
If we are not able to retain our existing customers or acquire new customers in a cost-effective manner, or if our customers fail to maintain their utilization of our products and services, we will not be able to maintain or grow our business. Our ability to retain and grow our relationships with our customers depends on the willingness of customers to partner with us. The attractiveness of our platform to customers depends upon, among other things: our brand and reputation, the amount of fees that we charge, our ability to sustain our value proposition to our customers, products and services offered by competitors, and our ability to perform under, and maintain, our customer agreements. Many of our customers do not have long-term contractual financial commitments to us and, therefore, many of our customers may reduce or cease their use of our products and services at any time without penalty or termination charges. Additionally, a subset of our customers can generally terminate their agreements with us without cause with limited requirements to provide prior notice. Our customers could decide to stop working with us and processing transactions through our platform or enter into or more relationships with our competitors. Further, any in the financial services industry may cause our customers to reduce their spending on lending technology or to seek to or their agreements with us. Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions with us after the expiration of the initial or current subscription term, and our customers, if they choose to renew at all, may renew on pricing or other contract terms that are less to us or otherwise ask to modify their agreement terms in a manner that is cost prohibitive to us. Our renewal rates may or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including our customers’ with our pricing or our products or their ability to continue their operations or spending levels. In addition, our customers’ regulators may require that they or otherwise limit their business with us, or impose regulatory pressure limiting their ability to do business with us. If any of our customers were to stop working with us, , limit, or their operations, do not renew their subscriptions with us on similar pricing terms, or otherwise their relationships with us, the number of loans and other transactions through our platform could decrease and our revenue and revenue growth rates could be affected.
Additionally, as the markets for our cloud-based banking software continue to develop, we may be unable to attract new customers based on the same pricing models that we have used historically. Large or influential financial services firms may demand more favorable pricing or other contract terms from us. As a result, we may in the future be required to change our pricing model, reduce our prices, or accept other unfavorable contract terms, any of which could adversely affect our revenue and revenue growth rate.
We could in the future have disagreements or disputes with any of our customers, which could negatively impact or threaten our relationship with them. In our agreements with customers, we make certain representations and warranties and covenants concerning our performance and our compliance with certain laws and regulations applicable to the services to be provided by us to our customers. If those representations and warranties were not accurate when made or if we fail to perform a covenant, we may be liable for any resulting damages, including potentially any losses associated with impacted transactions, and our reputation and ability to continue to attract new customers could be adversely affected. Additionally, our customers may engage in mergers, acquisitions or consolidations with each other, our competitors or with third parties, any of which could be disruptive to our existing and prospective relationships with our customers.
If we fail to retain any of our larger customers or a substantial number of our smaller customers, if we do not acquire new customers, if we do not continually expand revenue and volume from customers on our platform, or if we do not attract and retain a diverse mix of customers, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future prospects could be adversely affected.
We face intense competition, and if we are unable to compete effectively, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
The market in which we operate is intensely competitive and characterized, dependent on continued acceleration in digital technology, by shifting user preferences, fragmentation, and frequent introductions of new services and offerings. The primary competitors for our software platform include point solution vendors, providers of back office software with proprietary digital capabilities, and systems developed internally at financial services firms. Our current and future competitors may enjoy competitive advantages, such as greater name recognition, longer operating histories, greater category share in certain markets, market-specific knowledge, established relationships with financial services firms, including those with larger market share than our customers, and larger existing user bases in certain markets, more successful marketing capabilities, and substantially greater financial, technical, and other resources than we have. Greater financial resources and product development capabilities, particularly in a fluctuating macroeconomic environment, may allow these competitors to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in financial services firm preferences that may render our platform less attractive or . Our competitors may also make acquisitions or establish cooperative or other strategic relationships among themselves or with others, introduce new offerings with competitive price and performance characteristics or undertake more aggressive marketing campaigns than ours. Additionally, many of our competitors are well capitalized and offer discounted services, lower pricing, incentives, discounts and promotions, and platforms and offerings, which may be more than those that we offer. Further, our customers may decide to develop their own solutions that compete with ours.
As we and our competitors introduce new offerings and invest more in digital capabilities, and as existing offerings evolve, we expect to become subject to additional competition. Our competitors may adopt certain of our platform features or may adopt innovations that our customers value more highly than ours, which would render our platform less attractive and reduce our ability to differentiate our platform. Increased competition could result in, among other things, a reduction of the revenue we generate from the use of our platform from reduced demand or pricing pressures, the number of customers, the frequency of use of our platform, and our margins. For all of these reasons, we may not be able to compete successfully. If we lose existing customers, fail to attract new customers, or are forced to make pricing concessions as a result of increased competition, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We have a limited operating history in an evolving industry, and have experienced fluctuating growth rates in recent periods, which makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and may increase the risk that we will not be successful.
We were founded in 2012 and have previously experienced periods of rapid growth, but due primarily to macroeconomic factors, including an unfavorable interest rate environment, decreased housing affordability, and uncertain worldwide political and economic conditions, our growth rate and revenue have fluctuated in recent periods and our historical revenue growth rate and financial performance may not be indicative of our future performance. We believe that future growth of our revenue depends on a number of factors, including our ability to price our products and services effectively so that we are able to attract and retain customers without compromising our profitability, increase our existing customers’ use of our solutions, and provide our customers with excellent support. However, we are also impacted by macroeconomic factors over which we have no control, which have adversely impacted our business in recent periods.
Additionally, our limited operating history may make it difficult to make accurate predictions about our future performance. Assessing our business and future prospects may also be difficult because of the risks and difficulties we face. These risks and difficulties include our ability to:
• accurately forecast the impact of macroeconomic or other external factors on our business, including the timing and extent of such impacts;
• accurately forecast our revenue and plan or adjust our operating expenses in light of fluctuations in our revenue;
• accurately forecast the timing of anticipated acceleration in digital technology in the industries in which we operate;
• appropriately adjust our operating expenses in line with our revenue and that adequately supports our operations and future growth;
• develop a scalable, high-performance technology infrastructure that can efficiently and reliably handle increased usage, as well as the deployment of new features and services;
• maintain and increase the volume of transactions enabled through our platform;
• enter into new and maintain existing customer relationships;
• successfully identify, negotiate, execute, and integrate acquisitions or partnerships;
• successfully compete with current and future competitors;
• successfully build our brand and protect our reputation from negative publicity;
• increase the effectiveness of our marketing strategies;
• successfully adjust our proprietary technology, products, and services in a timely manner in response to changing macroeconomic conditions and fluctuations in the credit market;
• enter into new and maintain existing ecosystem partnerships;
• successfully introduce and integrate new products and services and enter new markets and geographies;
• adapt to rapidly evolving trends in the ways customers and consumers interact with technology;
• comply with and successfully adapt to complex and evolving regulatory environments;
• protect against fraud and online theft;
• avoid interruptions or disruptions in our service;
• effectively secure and maintain the confidentiality of the information received, accessed, stored, provided, and used across our systems;
• successfully obtain and maintain funding and liquidity to support continued growth and general corporate purposes;
• attract, integrate, and retain qualified employees; and
• effectively manage growth in our personnel and operations.
If we fail to address the risks and difficulties that we face, including those associated with the challenges listed above as well as those described elsewhere in this “ Risk Factors ” section, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected. You should not rely on our revenue or key business metrics for any previous quarterly or annual period as any indication of our financial or operating performance in future periods. In particular, our revenue growth rate has fluctuated in prior periods, and we expect it to continue fluctuate in the future for a number of possible reasons, including but not limited to macroeconomic conditions, reduced demand for our products and services, insufficient growth in the number of financial services firms that utilize our products and services or the lack of expansion of products and services within our existing customer base, transaction volume and mix, particularly with our significant customers, increased competition, a decrease in the growth or reduction in size of our overall market, or unintended consequences from our workforce reductions that impact our business.
Further, because we have limited historical financial data and operate in a rapidly evolving market, any predictions about our future revenue and expenses may not be as accurate as they would be if we had a longer operating history or operated in a more predictable market. If our revenue growth rate declines, investors’ perceptions of our business and the trading price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected. We have encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies with limited operating histories in rapidly changing industries. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our results of operations could differ materially from our expectations and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our business, financial condition, and results of operations depend on our ability to adapt to technological change as well as global trends in the way customers access cloud-based banking software and successfully introduce new and enhanced products, services and business models.
We operate in industries that are characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards, and frequent new product introductions. We believe that the pace of innovation will continue to accelerate as customers increasingly base their technology investments on a broad range of factors, including products and markets addressed, performance and scale, consumer experience, data governance, and regulatory compliance. We must continue to innovate and develop new products and features to meet changing customer and consumer needs and attract and retain talented software developers.
Our business depends significantly on revenue from large and mid-sized financial services firms. As our existing platform components mature, we will need to successfully integrate new products on our platform, including by achieving interoperability between such new products and our existing products, as well as upgrade the decisioning, verification, and automation components of our existing platform in order to continue to help our customers adapt quickly to constantly changing market conditions. If we are not able to develop and clearly demonstrate the value of new products, upgraded components, or services to our customers, or effectively utilize our customers’ data to provide them with value, our ability to retain and acquire
customers could be adversely affected. If competitors introduce new offerings embodying new technologies, or if new industry standards and practices emerge, our existing technology, services, and website may become obsolete. Our future success could depend on our ability to respond to technological advances and emerging industry standards and practices in a cost-effective and timely manner.
We have scaled our business rapidly and significant new platform features and services have in the past resulted in, and in the future may continue to result in, operational challenges affecting our business. Developing and launching enhancements to our platform and new products and services on our platform may involve significant technical risks and upfront capital investments that may not generate return on investment. We may use new technologies ineffectively, or we may fail to adapt to emerging industry standards. If we face material delays in introducing new or enhanced platform features, products, and services or if our recently introduced offerings do not perform in accordance with our expectations, the customers and consumers that utilize our platform may forego the use of our services in favor of those of our competitors, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our results of operations have fluctuated from period to period, which has caused the market price of our Class A common stock to fluctuate.
Our results of operations have historically varied from period to period, and we expect that our results of operations will continue to vary significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year because of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control and difficult to predict. As a result, you should not rely upon our historical results of operations as indicators of future performance. Numerous factors can influence our results of operations, including:
• our ability to attract and retain customers in a cost-effective manner;
• our ability to maintain or increase loan volumes, transactions processed, platform utilization, and improve loan mix;
• our ability to successfully expand in existing markets and successfully enter new markets;
• changes in financial services firm behavior with respect to cloud-based software products and solutions;
• the amount and timing of operating expenses related to maintaining and expanding our business, operations, and infrastructure, including acquiring new and maintaining existing customers;
• our restructuring actions and the timing of incurring expenses and cash expenditures related to such actions;
• our ability to successfully identify, negotiate, execute, and integrate strategic acquisitions or partnerships;
• the mix of revenue we generate from our products and our marketplace;
• the timing and success of new products and services;
• the impact of worldwide economic conditions, including economic slowdowns as a result of the imposition of tariffs or other impacts on trade relations, changes in market interest rates, recessions, housing affordability, and tightening of credit markets, including due to ongoing global conflict and war;
• the seasonality of our business;
• our ability to maintain an adequate rate of growth and effectively manage that growth;
• our ability to keep pace with technology changes in our industry;
• the success of our sales and marketing efforts;
• the effects of negative publicity on our business, reputation, or brand;
• our ability to protect, maintain, and enforce our intellectual property;
• costs associated with defending claims, including intellectual property infringement claims, and related judgments or settlements;
• changes in governmental or other regulations, including state and federal banking laws and regulations or in federal monetary policies, affecting our business;
• interruptions in service and any related impact on our business, reputation, or brand;
• the attraction, retention and engagement of qualified employees and key personnel;
• our ability to choose and effectively manage partners, vendors, and other service providers;
• the effects of natural or man-made catastrophic events;
• the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting; and
• changes in our tax rates or exposure to additional tax liabilities.
The variability and unpredictability of our results of operations could result in our failure to meet our expectations or those of analysts that cover us or investors with respect to revenue or other results of operations for a particular period. If we fail to meet or exceed such expectations, the market price of our Class A common stock could fall substantially, and we could face costly lawsuits, including securities class action suits.
We often rely on self-reporting of completed transactions by our customers due to our primarily success-based model, which can make it difficult to estimate and forecast revenue.
We offer our digital lending platform and products to financial institutions through software-as-a-service agreements where fees are assessed for each completed transaction, such as a funded loan, new account opening, closing transaction or API call. For those products that involve a loan or deposit account application we do not charge for abandoned applications or rejected applications, even though they cause us to incur costs. Our customers have the ability to access our platform under (a) subscription arrangements, in which customers commit to a minimum number of completed transactions at specified prices over the contract term, (b) under usage-based arrangements, in which customers pay in arrears a variable amount for completed transactions at a specified price, (c) a fixed price platform fee, allowing the use of multiple products and services, or (d) consumption arrangements, in which customers commit to a certain amount of consumption at specified prices and prepay a fixed amount in advance of their consumption. We may earn additional overage fees if the number of completed transactions exceeds contractual minimums for customers who elect to enter into subscription or consumption agreements in which a minimum number of transactions are completed at specified prices. Additionally, other than our usage-based agreements pursuant to which customers pay for a variable amount of completed transactions, our subscription and consumption agreements are generally non-cancellable during the contract term. Our usage-based arrangements generally can be at any time by the customer. We recognize revenue ratably for our subscription arrangements because the customer receives and consumes the benefits of our platform throughout the contract period. We recognize fees for usage-based and consumption arrangements as the completed transactions are processed using our platform.
We use and often rely on the reporting of completed transactions by our customers when invoicing them for usage and overage fees in connection with our arrangements. If the reporting of completed transactions by our customers is not timely or accurate, it may impact our ability to estimate revenue, which may impact the accuracy of our actual and forecasted revenue recognized from our customers. If we incorrectly forecast revenue from our customers and the amount of revenue is less than projections we provide to investors, the price of our Class A common stock could decline substantially and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We have in the past, and may in the future, make strategic acquisitions or dispositions or we may enter into partnerships, strategic collaborations, joint ventures or licensing agreements and investments, and we face risks related to the execution and integration of such acquisitions or dispositions or investments and the management of any associated growth.
We have in the past, and may in the future, expand, diversify or streamline our operations with strategic acquisitions or dispositions or entry into partnerships, strategic collaborations, joint ventures, or licensing arrangements and investments in and with companies, businesses, personnel, and technologies in the future. For example, in 2024, we entered into a strategic partnership with Covered Insurance Solutions, and in March 2026, we completed the sale of substantially all the assets and liabilities of our title insurance business to Covius Services, LLC (the “Purchaser”). Each transaction requires unique approaches to integration due to, among other reasons, the structure of the transaction, the integration of technology, the size, locations, and cultural differences among their teams and ours, and has required, and will continue to require, attention from our management team. Such transactions may also require additional management resources to integrate more significant and often more complex businesses into our company and restructure operations. During the pendency of a divestiture, we may be subject to risks related to a decline in the business, loss of employees, customers, or suppliers, and that the transaction may not close, which could have a material and adverse effect on the business to be and on us.
We may be unable to identify or complete prospective acquisitions or dispositions or partnerships, strategic collaborations, joint ventures or licensing arrangements and investments for many reasons, including, competition for acquisition targets, our inability or unwillingness to pay for targets with high valuations, the absence of a market for certain strategic transactions we may want to pursue or our inability to identify suitable targets, or our inability to finance an acquisition. Antitrust or other regulatory requirements may also delay or prevent an acquisition or require us to make changes to our business to be able to
consummate the acquisition. Further, any issuances of equity as part of the consideration for the target will dilute our existing stockholders.
Even if we are able to complete an acquisition, partnership, or investment, our future success depends in part on our ability to integrate any future acquisitions and manage any investments, businesses, and entry into partnerships effectively, and we can provide no assurance that such acquired businesses, or any investment or strategic transaction that we enter into, will be successfully integrated into our business, generate revenue, or achieve any expected benefits on a timely basis or at all. Additionally, following completion of an acquisition, we may still be subject to certain liabilities in connection with any such transaction. For example, in connection with our completed sale of substantially all the assets and liabilities of our title insurance business to the Purchaser, we may be required to indemnify the Purchaser for certain liabilities, which may be greater than we expect and may require significant management time and attention.
Any future acquisitions, or similar strategic transactions involve numerous risks, any of which could harm our business and negatively affect our financial condition and results of operations, including:
• diversion of management’s attention, including oversight over acquired or disposed businesses;
• difficulty in accurately forecasting and accounting for the financial impact of any such transaction, including accounting charges, write-offs of deferred revenue under purchase accounting, and integrating and reporting results for acquired companies that have not historically followed U.S. generally accepted accounting principles;
• maintaining employee morale and retaining key employees;
• integration of operations, systems, technologies, products, and personnel of each acquired company or strategic partner, the inefficiencies and lack of control that may result if such integration is delayed or not implemented, and unforeseen difficulties and expenditures that may arise in connection with integration;
• implementation of internal controls, procedures, and policies, in particular, with respect to the effectiveness of internal controls, cyber and information security practices, incident response plans, and business continuity and disaster recovery plans, compliance with privacy, data protection, information security, and other regulations, and compliance with U.S.-based economic policies and sanctions which may not have previously been applicable to the acquired company’s or strategic partner’s operations;
• implementation of restructuring actions and cost reduction initiatives to streamline operations and improve cost efficiencies;
• our acquisitions, partnerships or investments may not achieve the planned objectives or return on investment and we may incur impairment charges for acquired intangible assets, goodwill or investments;
• we may be required to pay contingent consideration in excess of the initial fair value, and contingent consideration may become payable at a time when we do not have sufficient cash available to pay such consideration;
• significant costs incurred in connection with acquisition transactions, such as professional service fees;
• the risk that any additional stock-based compensation issued or assumed in connection with an acquisition or strategic transaction may dilute our current stockholders, which may in turn impact our stock price and results of operations;
• in the case of foreign acquisitions or acquisitions that include a foreign entity or operations, the need to integrate operations across different cultures and languages and to address the particular economic, currency, political, and regulatory risks associated with specific countries as well as tax risks that may arise from the acquisition;
• tax risks, including any requirement to make tax withholdings in various jurisdictions in connection with such transactions or as part of our continuing operations following a transaction, and companies or businesses that we acquire may cause us to alter our international tax structure or otherwise create more complexity with respect to tax matters;
• increasing legal, regulatory, and compliance exposure, and the additional costs related to mitigate each of those, as a result of adding new offices, employees, and other service providers, benefit plans, equity awards, job types, and lines of business globally; and
• liability for activities of the acquired company before the acquisition, including intellectual property, commercial, and other litigation claims or disputes, cyber and information security vulnerabilities and incidents, violations of laws, rules and regulations, including with respect to employee classification, tax liabilities, and other known and unknown liabilities.
Further, whether such a strategic transaction is ultimately consummated or not, its pendency could have a number of negative effects on our current business, including potentially disrupting our regular operations, increasing our near-term costs, diverting the attention of our workforce and management team and increasing undesired workforce turnover. It could also disrupt existing business relationships, make it harder to develop new business relationships, or otherwise negatively impact the way that we operate our business.
If we fail to address the foregoing risks or other problems encountered in connection with past or future acquisitions, dispositions, investments or other strategic collaborations, or if we are unable to successfully integrate and manage our acquisitions and investments, or if we are unable to successfully complete other strategic initiatives or such initiatives do not meet our strategic objectives, we may not realize the expected benefits of such strategic initiatives or we may become exposed to additional liabilities, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
The impairment of intangible assets, goodwill, and other assets arising from any future acquisitions or investments may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
When we acquire or invest in a business, a substantial portion of the purchase price of the acquisition may be allocated to goodwill and other indefinite-lived intangible assets. Under U.S. GAAP, we review goodwill and other indefinite-lived intangible assets for impairment annually, and more frequently if an event occurs or circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of goodwill or an indefinite-lived asset below its carrying value. An adverse change in market conditions or operating results, particularly if such change has the effect of changing one of our critical assumptions or estimates, could result in a change to the estimation of fair value that could result in an impairment charge to our goodwill or intangible assets. Moreover, we may not be able to achieve our business targets for any future acquisitions or investments, which could result in us incurring additional goodwill and other intangible assets impairment charges. Further declines in our market capitalization increase the risk that we may be required to perform another impairment analysis, which could result in an of up to the entire balance of our goodwill and other intangible assets. Any such charge or write-off may have an effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
A cyberattack, security breach, or incident affecting us or the third parties we rely on or partner with could expose us or our customers and consumers to a risk of loss or misuse of confidential information and have an adverse effect on our reputation, brand, business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We are increasingly dependent on information technology systems and infrastructure to operate our business. In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, receive, use, transmit, store, and otherwise process large amounts of sensitive information, including personal information, credit information, and other sensitive and confidential information of consumers. It is critical that we do so in a manner designed to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of such sensitive information. Additionally, in the ordinary course of our business, we collect, store, transmit, and otherwise process large amounts of confidential business information, including intellectual property, proprietary corporate and business information, and other confidential information. We also have arrangements in place with certain of our partners, vendors, and other service providers that require us to share certain information we maintain and otherwise process, including consumer information, with them. Certain elements of our operations (including elements of our information technology infrastructure) rely on third parties, and as a result, we use numerous third-party service providers that may have access to our computer networks and sensitive or confidential information. In addition, many of those third parties may subcontract or outsource some of their responsibilities to other third parties. Our information technology systems, including the functions of third parties that are involved with or have access to those systems, are large and complex, with many points of entry and access. Our systems and those of our third-party service providers are to and have been, and may be subject to , , or , internal and external and other means of compromising the security, , or availability of systems and data, including hacking, intrusions, malware, ransomware and other code, social engineering attacks, phishing and spearphishing attempts, inducement, electronic (including attempts to personal or financial or information to obtain loans or other financial products), wire attempts to our servers with distributed -of-service attacks, employee theft, , or , access by third parties (including foreign governments or state actors with significant financial and technological resources) or internal actors, or other attacks, and other types of , exposure, and security and . Any can be from or actions of our employees, partners, vendors, service providers, customers, or by third parties. While we take steps to ensure any such are patched in our systems, but we cannot guarantee that all have been patched in every system upon which we are dependent or that additional of other software upon which we rely will not be discovered. Additionally, to the extent manual processes are involved in the handling of sensitive information, such sensitive information could be our training and quality assurance precautions. While we have taken steps to protect the sensitive and confidential information that we have access to and have implemented multiple overlapping
controls to reduce risk of a single control failure, our security measures or those of our partners, vendors, or other service providers could be breached or we could suffer data loss, unavailability, corruption, or unauthorized use or other processing, or unauthorized access to or other compromises of our platform or the systems or networks used in our business.
Cybersecurity risks for the financial services industry have increased significantly in recent years due to new technologies, increasing reliance on technology, and increasing sophistication of organized crime, hackers, and other actors. Cyberattacks are increasing in frequency, levels of persistence, sophistication and intensity, and techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and may not be known until they are launched against a target. We and our partners, vendors, and other service providers may be unable to anticipate or prevent these attacks, react in a timely manner, or implement adequate preventive measures, and we may face delays in our detection or remediation of, or other responses to, security breaches and other privacy- and security-related incidents. These security risks that we and our partners, vendors, and other service providers face have been heightened by an increase in employees and service providers working remotely. Additionally, these risks may be elevated in connection with geopolitical events.
In addition, consumers on our platform could have vulnerabilities on their own devices that are unrelated to our systems and platform but could mistakenly attribute their own vulnerabilities to us. Consumers on our platform may also provide sensitive information to third parties through their use of our platform, and consumers could mistakenly attribute any misuse of such information by third parties to us. Further, breaches and incidents experienced by other companies may be leveraged against us. For example, credential stuffing and business email compromise attacks are becoming increasingly common and sophisticated actors can mask their attacks, making them increasingly difficult to identify and prevent. Certain efforts may be state-sponsored or supported by significant financial and technological resources, making them even more difficult to detect, remediate, and otherwise respond to.
There also have been and may continue to be significant supply chain attacks, and we cannot guarantee that our or our partners’, vendors’, or service providers’ systems and networks have not been breached or that they do not contain exploitable defects or bugs that could result in a breach of or incident impacting, or a disruption to our systems and networks or the systems and networks of third parties that support us and our services. In addition, laws, regulations, government guidance, and industry standards and practices in the United States and elsewhere are rapidly evolving to combat these threats. We may face increased compliance burdens regarding such requirements with regulators and customers regarding our products and services and will incur additional costs for oversight and monitoring of our own supply chain.
Although we have developed systems and processes that are designed to help protect the confidential and sensitive information we maintain and our partners, vendors, and other service providers maintain on our behalf, including personal information of our customers, consumers, and employees, protect our systems, prevent data loss, and prevent security breaches and security incidents, these security measures may not have fully protected our systems in the past and cannot guarantee security in the future. We also have incorporated, and may continue to incorporate, artificial intelligence (“AI”) technologies into our platform and otherwise in our business, which may increase cybersecurity risks. Further, AI technologies may be used in connection with certain cybersecurity attacks, resulting in heightened risks of security breaches and incidents. The information technology systems and infrastructure used in our business may be vulnerable to cyberattacks or security breaches or incidents, and third parties may be able to access data, including personal information of our customers, consumers, or employees, or other sensitive and proprietary data, accessible through those systems. Employee and service provider , , or other in the storage, use, or transmission of any of these types of data could result in an actual or perceived privacy or security or other security . Although we have policies and technologies restricting access to the personal information we store, these policies and technologies may not be in all cases. Further, we must expend significant resources to build and maintain our privacy and data security systems; however, if we do not provide adequate funding or prioritize programs and strategic initiatives related to privacy and cybersecurity, we may be more to or attacks. Any of privacy, or any security or other , could our operations, result in our platform being , result in of or access to, or acquisition, disclosure, or other processing of sensitive or confidential information, personal information, or other data, result in transfer of funds. Further, any such event, or the perception it has occurred, may our reputation, brand, and competitive position, our relationships with our customers, subject us to media coverage, or result in , regulatory , and proceedings and significant legal, regulatory, and financial exposure, including ongoing monitoring by regulators, and any such or any perception that our security measures are could lead to of customer confidence in, or decreased use of, our platform, any of which could affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Any actual or perceived of privacy or security, or other security , impacting any entities with which we share or data (including, for example, our partners, vendors, or other service providers) could have similar effects. We also expect to incur significant costs in an effort to detect and prevent privacy and security and other security , and we may face increased costs and requirements to expend substantial resources in the event of an actual or perceived privacy or security or other .
Additionally, defending against claims or litigation based on any privacy or security breach or other security incident, regardless of their merit, could be costly and divert management’s attention. We cannot ensure that any provisions in our agreements with customers, contracts with service providers and other contracts relating to limitations of liability, including those in connection with a privacy or security breach or other security incident, would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim. We cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be adequate for data handling or information security costs or liabilities actually incurred, that insurance will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or that any insurer will not coverage as to any future claim. The assertion of one or more large us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have an effect on our reputation, brand, business, financial condition, and results of operations.
The success of our business depends on a trustworthy reputation and strong brand and any failure to maintain, protect, and enhance our brand would hurt our ability to retain or expand our base of customers and our ability to increase their level of engagement.
We believe maintaining a trustworthy reputation and strong brand is critical to our success and our ability to attract customers to our platform and maintain good relations with regulators. Our reputation, brand, and ability to build trust with existing and new customers may be adversely affected by complaints and negative publicity about us, our platform, partners, and customers that utilize our platform or our competitors’ platforms, even if factually incorrect or based on isolated incidents. Negative perception of our platform or company may harm our reputation and brand, including as a result of:
• perceptions of cloud-based software and our industry and our company, including the quality, security, and reliability of our cloud-based software platform;
• the overall user experience of our platform;
• changes to our platform;
• a failure to provide a range of options sought by customers or consumers;
• our ability to effectively manage and resolve customer and consumer complaints;
• fraudulent, illegal, negligent, reckless, or otherwise inappropriate behavior by users or third parties;
• actual or perceived disruptions to, failures of, or defects, bugs, vulnerabilities, or errors in our platform or similar incidents, such as privacy or security breaches or other security incidents, site outages, payment disruptions, or other incidents that impact or may be perceived to impact the reliability of our services, including services provided by third parties we rely on;
• litigation over, or investigations by regulators into, our platform;
• customers’ or consumers’ lack of awareness of, or compliance with, our policies;
• a failure to comply with legal, tax, privacy, data protection, information security, or regulatory requirements;
• changes to our practices with respect to collection and use of customer and consumer data;
• a failure to enforce our policies in a manner that users perceive as effective, fair, and transparent;
• a failure to operate our business in a way that is consistent with our values and mission;
• inadequate or unsatisfactory support experiences for our customers;
• perceptions about our liquidity or financial strength;
• illegal or otherwise inappropriate behavior by our management team or other employees or contractors; or
• a failure to register and prevent misappropriation of our trademarks.
If we do not successfully develop, protect, and enhance our reputation and brand, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
If we fail to manage our operations effectively, our reputation, business, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
In the past, we have experienced periods of rapid growth in our customers, operations and employee headcount, and we expect to experience growth in the future. Our growth has placed, and may continue to place, substantial demands on management and our operational and financial infrastructure. However, we have undertaken several restructuring actions to better align our financial model and our business, and we may need to take additional restructuring actions in the future to align our business with the market. Steps we take to manage our business operations, including reductions in operating expense and restructurings may adversely impact our business. Steps we take to manage our business operations and future growth may adversely affect our reputation and brand, our ability to recruit, retain and motivate highly skilled personnel.
We have made, and intend to continue to make in the future, substantial investments in our technology, customer service, risk, sales and marketing infrastructure. Our ability to manage our growth and business operations effectively and to integrate new employees, technologies, and acquisitions into our existing business will require us to continue to expand our operational and financial infrastructure and to continue to effectively integrate, develop, and motivate employees, while maintaining the beneficial aspects of our culture. Continued growth could challenge our ability to develop and improve our information technology infrastructure and our operational, financial, and management controls, enhance our reporting systems and procedures, recruit, train, and retain highly skilled personnel and maintain user satisfaction. Additionally, if we do not manage the growth of our business and operations effectively, the quality of our platform and the efficiency of our operations could suffer, which could adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations. For example, in connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2025, we identified two material in our internal control over financial reporting. Our to implement and maintain internal control over financial reporting or remediate the material in a timely manner could result in in our consolidated financial statements that could result in a of our financial statements and could cause us to to meet our reporting obligations, any of which could investor confidence in us and could cause a in the price of our Class A common stock. We will need to continue to our operational and financial infrastructure in order to manage our business effectively and accurately report our results of operations.
Systems failures and resulting interruptions in the availability of our website or platform, or other delays or slow response times from our website or platform, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We currently serve our customers and consumers on our platform from third-party data center hosting facilities. It is critical to our success that our customers (including their customers) and consumers be able to access our platform at all times, and that the performance of our platform is responsive and rapid. Our systems, or those of third parties upon which we rely, may experience service interruptions, outages, failures, or degradation or other performance problems because of hardware and software defects or malfunctions, distributed denial-of-service and other cyberattacks, infrastructure changes, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, other natural disasters, power losses, in telecommunications services, , military or political , terrorist attacks, computer viruses, ransomware, malware, or other events. Our systems also may be subject to -ins, , theft, and acts of , including by our own employees. Some of our systems are not fully redundant and our recovery planning may not be sufficient for all eventualities. These eventualities could cause information, including information relating to our customers and consumers, to be , , altered, or . Our business insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our that may result from in our service as a result of systems and similar events. Additionally, in some cases, partners, vendors, and other service providers run their own platforms that we access, and we are, therefore, to their service . In the event that our data center arrangements are , or if there are any of service or to a center, we could experience lengthy in our service as well as and additional expenses in arranging new facilities and services.
We have experienced and will likely continue to experience system failures and other events or conditions from time to time that interrupt the availability or reduce or affect the speed or functionality of our platform. These system failures generally occur either as a result of software updates being deployed with unexpected errors or as a result of temporary infrastructure failures related to storage, network, or compute capacity being exhausted. These events have resulted in losses in revenue, though such losses have not been material to date. System failures in the future could result in significant losses of revenue. Moreover, we have in the past provided credits to customers per contractual obligations and/or voluntarily made payments to customers to compensate them for the system failure or similar event, and we may provide similar such credits in the future. In addition, the affected customer or consumer could seek monetary recourse from us for its and such , even if , would likely be time-consuming and for us to address. Further, in some instances, we may not be to identify the cause or causes of these performance within an acceptable period of time. A in the availability or reduction in the availability, speed, or other functionality of our platform could affect our business and reputation and could result in the of customers.
Further, we have service level agreements with our customers that require us to meet uptime requirements, and in some cases, system performance or latency standards. In the event that we fail to meet those requirements, whether because of system failures, slow platform performance, or otherwise, our customers may request credits from us, which could adversely impact our revenue and results of operations in a period where we provide such credits.
If we are unable to successfully implement AI to our platform, core solutions, or applications, our business could be harmed.
We have incorporated and may continue to incorporate additional AI technology into our platform, our operations and otherwise within our business, and AI technology may become more important to our operations or to our future growth over time. We expect to rely on AI to help drive future growth in our business, but there can be no assurance that we will realize the desired or anticipated benefits from AI technology or at all. Some of our customers, especially those in highly regulated industries, may be reluctant or unwilling to adopt products using AI technology. Accordingly, adoption of AI features in our products and marketing could reduce or delay customer adoption. We may also fail to properly implement or market our use of AI technology. Our competitors or other third parties may incorporate AI technology into their products, offerings, and solutions more quickly or more successfully than us, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations.
Additionally, our use of AI technology may expose us to additional claims, demands, and proceedings by private parties and regulatory authorities and subject us to legal liability as well as brand and reputational harm. For example, if the outputs that our AI technology assists in producing are or are alleged to be deficient, inaccurate, or biased, or if such outputs or their development or deployment, including the collection, use, or other processing of data used to train or create such AI technology, are held or alleged to infringe upon or to have misappropriated third-party intellectual property rights or to violate applicable laws, regulations, or other actual or asserted legal obligations to which we are or may become subject, our business, operating results, financial condition, and growth prospects could be adversely affected.
The legal, regulatory, and policy environments around AI technology are also evolving rapidly, and we may become subject to new and evolving legal and other obligations. For example, the European Union has adopted the Artificial Intelligence Act, which will impose substantial obligations related to the sale and use of AI-related systems. Numerous U.S. states also have proposed, and in certain cases enacted, legislation addressing aspects of the development, use and commercialization of AI-related systems. These and other developments may require us to make significant changes to our use of AI technology, including by limiting or restricting our use of AI technology, and which may require us to make significant changes to our policies and practices, which may necessitate expenditure of significant time, expense, and other resources, the use of AI technology also presents emerging ethical issues that could harm our reputation and business if our use of AI technology becomes controversial.
Our sales cycle can be unpredictable, time-consuming, and costly.
Our sales process involves educating prospective and existing customers about the benefits and technical capabilities of our products and services. Prospective customers often undertake a prolonged evaluation process, which typically involves not only our products and services, but also those of our competitors. In addition to a prolonged evaluation process, macroeconomic conditions including rising interest rates and declining demand for mortgage, mortgage-related and consumer banking products may also impact our sales cycle. Our sales cycles are typically lengthy, generally ranging from six to nine months for smaller financial services firms and ranging from twelve to eighteen months or more for larger financial services firms. We may spend substantial time, effort, and money on our sales and marketing efforts without any assurance that our efforts will produce any sales. Events affecting our customers’ businesses may occur during the sales cycle that could affect the size or timing of a purchase, contributing to more unpredictability in our business and results of operations. As a result of these factors, we may face greater costs, longer sales cycles, and less predictability in the future, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may encounter deployment challenges, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may face unexpected challenges related to the complexity of our customers’ deployment and configuration requirements. Deployment of our software platform may be delayed or expenses may increase when customers have unexpected data, software, or technology challenges, or unanticipated business requirements, which could adversely affect our relationship with our customers and our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Further, because we do not fully control our
customers’ deployment schedules, if our customers do not allocate or have the internal resources necessary to meet deployment timelines or if there are otherwise unanticipated deployment delays or difficulties, our ability to take customers live and the overall customer experience could be adversely affected. We rely on existing customers to act as references for prospective customers, and difficulties in deployment and configuration could therefore adversely affect our ability to attract new customers. Any difficulties or delays in the deployment processes could cause customers to delay or forego future purchases of our products and services, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Defects, errors, or vulnerabilities in our applications, backend systems, or other technology systems and those of third-party technology providers could harm our reputation and brand and adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our platform and system infrastructure rely on software that is highly technical and complex and depend on the ability of such software to store, retrieve, process, and manage high volumes of data. The software on which we rely may contain undetected errors, defects, bugs, or vulnerabilities, some of which may only be discovered after the code has been released. Our practice is to affect frequent releases of software updates, sometimes multiple times per day. Further, as we create new products and services and enhance our existing products and services, we may encounter difficulties in achieving interoperability between our new products and services and our existing products and services. The third-party software that we incorporate into our platform or rely on may also be subject to errors, defects, bugs, or vulnerabilities. Any errors, defects, bugs, or discovered in our code or from third-party software after release could result in publicity, a of users, increased regulatory , or , of revenue or liability for , and access or other performance issues. Such could also be by actors and result in exposure of data of users on our platform, or otherwise result in a security or other security . We may need to expend significant financial and development resources to analyze, correct, eliminate, or work around , bugs, or or to address, analyze, correct, and eliminate software platform . Any to timely and effectively any such , , bugs, or could affect our business, reputation, brand, financial condition, and results of operations.
Any failure to offer high-quality customer support by us or by partners, vendors, and other service providers may adversely affect our relationships with our customers and could adversely affect our reputation, brand, business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our ability to attract and retain customers is dependent in part on our ability to provide high-quality support. Our customers depend on our customer success organization to resolve any issues relating to our platform and products. As we continue to grow our business and improve our offerings, we will face challenges related to providing high-quality support services at scale. Additionally, to the extent we decide to grow our international business and the number of international users on our platform, our customer success organization will face additional challenges, including those associated with delivering support in languages other than English. Any failure to maintain high-quality support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality support, could harm our reputation and adversely affect our ability to scale our platform and business, our financial condition, and our results of operations.
We experience seasonal fluctuations in our financial results, which could cause our Class A common stock price to fluctuate.
Although macroeconomic factors, including an unfavorable interest rate environment, decreased housing affordability, and uncertain worldwide political and economic conditions, including concerns about a potential recessionary environment, adverse impacts from trade regulation and consumer confidence, has made, and may continue to make, seasonal fluctuations difficult to detect, our business is highly dependent on consumer borrowing patterns that have an impact on our results of operations. We generally experience changes in consumer activity over the course of the calendar year. Historically, demand for mortgages and other loans has increased during the summer months, which boosts overall mortgage origination activity in the second and third quarters of our fiscal year. Seasonality has and will likely continue to cause fluctuations in our financial results on a quarterly basis. While our growth has obscured this seasonality in our overall financial results, we expect our results of operations to continue to be affected by such seasonality in the future. In addition, other seasonal trends may develop and the existing seasonal trends that we experience may become more pronounced and contribute to fluctuations in our results of operations as we continue to scale and our growth slows. As such, we may not accurately forecast our results of operations. However, we base our spending and investment plans on forecasts and estimates, and we may not be to adjust our spending quickly enough if our revenue is less than expected, causing our results of operations to to meet our expectations or the expectations of investors.
The market for cloud-based banking software is still in relatively early stages of growth and if this market does not continue to grow, grows more slowly than we expect, or fails to grow as large as we expect, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Use of, and reliance on, cloud-based banking software is still at an early stage, and we do not know whether financial services firms will continue to adopt cloud-based banking software in the future, or whether the market will change in ways we do not anticipate. Many financial services firms have invested substantial personnel and financial resources in legacy software, and these institutions may be reluctant, unwilling or unable to convert from their existing systems to our software platform. Furthermore, these financial services firms may be reluctant, unwilling or unable to use cloud-based banking software due to various concerns such as the security of their data and reliability of the delivery model. These concerns or other considerations may cause financial services firms to choose not to adopt cloud-based banking software such as our cloud-based software platform or to adopt them more slowly than we anticipate, either of which would adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Our future also depends on our ability to sell additional products, services, and functionality to our current and prospective customers. As we create new products and services and our existing products and services, these applications and may not be to customers or we may encounter in interoperability between our new products and services and our existing products and services. In addition, promoting and selling new and functionality may require increasingly sales and marketing efforts, and if customers choose not to adopt this functionality our business and results of operations could . If financial services firms are or to transition from their legacy systems, or if the demand for our software platform does not meet our expectations, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be affected.
We depend on our senior management team and our other highly skilled employees to grow and operate our business, and if we are unable to hire, retain, manage, and motivate our employees, or if our new employees do not perform as we anticipate, we may not be able to grow effectively and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our future success will depend in part on the continued service of our founders, senior management team, key technical employees, and other highly skilled employees, including Nima Ghamsari, Head of Blend, Co-Founder, and Chair of our board of directors, and on our ability to continue to identify, hire, develop, motivate, and retain talented employees. We may not be able to retain the services of any of our employees or other members of senior management in the future. Also, all of our U.S.-based employees, including our senior management team and Mr. Ghamsari, work for us on an at-will basis, and there is no assurance that any such employee will remain with us. Our competitors may be successful in recruiting and hiring members of our management team or other key employees, and it may be difficult for us to find suitable replacements on a timely basis, on competitive terms, or at all, or we may need to offer additional compensation to retain such employees. If we are unable to attract and retain the necessary employees, particularly in critical areas of our business, we may not achieve our strategic goals. Moreover, the implementation of any future workforce reduction plans or related initiatives may have consequences on our employee morale, our culture, and our ability to attract and retain employees. In addition, from time to time, there may be changes in our senior management team that may be to our business. If our senior management team to work together effectively and to execute its plans and strategies, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be affected.
We face intense competition for highly skilled employees, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area where we have a substantial presence and need for highly skilled employees. To attract and retain top talent, we have offered, and we believe we will need to continue to offer, competitive compensation and benefits packages. Job candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the equity awards they receive in connection with their employment. The trading price of our Class A common stock has been volatile and has declined since our Initial Public Offering and may continue to fluctuate in response to various factors. If the perceived value of our equity awards declines for this or other reasons, it may adversely affect our ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees. In addition, due to declines in the trading price of our Class A common stock, in order to offer competitive compensation packages, we have issued, and may have to continue to issue more shares for equity awards to new and existing employees than in previous periods when the trading price of our Class A common stock was higher, which has and may continue to affect our outstanding share count and cause dilution to existing shareholders. Certain of our employees have received significant proceeds from sales of our equity in private transactions and many of our employees may receive significant proceeds from sales of our equity in the public markets, which may reduce their motivation to continue to work for us. We may need to invest significant amounts of cash and equity to attract and retain new employees and expend significant time and resources to identify, recruit, train, and integrate such employees, and we may never realize returns on these investments. If we are to effectively manage our hiring needs or integrate new hires, our , ability to meet forecasts, and employee morale, productivity, and engagement could , which could affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Misconduct and errors by our employees, partners, vendors, and other service providers could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and reputation.
We are exposed to many types of operational risk, including the risk of misconduct and errors by our employees, partners, vendors, and other service providers. Our business depends on our employees, partners, vendors, and other service providers to enable the processing of a large number of increasingly complex transactions, including transactions that involve significant dollar amounts and loan and financial transactions that involve the collection, use, and disclosure of sensitive information, including personal information and confidential business information. We could be adversely affected if transactions were redirected, misappropriated, or otherwise improperly executed, sensitive information, including personal information and confidential business information, was accessible by or disclosed to unintended persons, or an operational breakdown or failure in the processing of other transactions occurred, whether as a result of human error, a purposeful or a of our operations or systems. In addition, the manner in which we store and use certain personal information and interact with consumers, and the manner in which our customers interact with their customers through our platform is governed by various federal and state laws. It is not always possible to identify and or by employees, partners, vendors, or other service providers, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or . Any of these occurrences could result in our ability to operate our business, potential liability to customers and consumers, to attract future customers and consumers, reputational , regulatory intervention, and financial , which could affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and reputation.
We are committed to expanding our platform and enhancing the user experience, which may not maximize short-term financial results and may yield results that conflict with the market’s expectations, which could result in our stock price being adversely affected.
We are passionate about expanding our platform and continually enhancing the user experience, with a focus on driving long-term engagement through innovation, the expansion of our platform, products, and services, and providing high-quality support, which may not necessarily maximize short-term financial results. We frequently make business decisions that may reduce our short-term financial results if we believe that the decisions are consistent with our goals to improve the user experience, which we believe will improve our financial results over the long term. These decisions may not be consistent with the short-term expectations of our stockholders and may not produce the long-term benefits that we expect, in which case our growth, business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We rely on assumptions, estimates, and unaudited financial information to calculate certain of our key metrics and other figures presented herein, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics could adversely affect our reputation and our business.
Certain of the metrics that we present, including herein are calculated using internal company data that has not been independently verified, data from third-party attribution partners, or unaudited financial information of companies that we have acquired or partnered with. While these metrics and figures are based on what we believe to be reasonable calculations for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring these metrics and figures across our client base and user base. Additionally, certain figures relating to our strategic acquisitions and partnerships are based on unaudited financial information that has been prepared by the management of such companies and has not been independently reviewed or audited. We cannot assure you that such financial information would not be materially different if such information was independently reviewed or audited. We regularly review and have in the past, and may in the future, adjust our processes for calculating our metrics and other figures to improve their accuracy, but these efforts may not prove successful and we may discover material inaccuracies. In addition, our methodology for calculating these metrics may differ from the methodology used by other companies to calculate similar metrics and figures. We may also discover unexpected in the data that we are using that resulted from technical or other , or we may determine that third party data we relied upon is not accurate or does not accurately reflect our business. If we determine that any of our metrics or figures are not accurate, we may be required to revise or reporting such metrics or figures. Any real or perceived in our metrics and other figures could affect our reputation and our business.
Our marketing efforts to help grow our business may not be effective.
Promoting awareness of our business is important to our ability to grow our business and to attract new customers and consumers and can be costly. We believe that the importance of brand recognition will increase as competition in the consumer lending industry expands. Successful promotion of our brand will depend largely on the effectiveness of marketing efforts and the overall user experience of our customers and consumers on our platform, which factors are outside our control. The marketing channels that we employ may also become more crowded and saturated by other cloud-based software platforms, which may decrease the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. Our marketing initiatives may become increasingly expensive and generating a meaningful return on these initiatives may be difficult. Even if we successfully increase revenue as a result of our paid marketing efforts, it may not offset the additional marketing expenses we incur. If our marketing efforts to help grow our business are not effective, we expect that our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our company culture has contributed to our success and if we cannot maintain and evolve our culture as we grow, our business could be adversely affected.
We believe that our company culture has been critical to our success. We have invested substantial time and resources in building out our team with an emphasis on our shared beliefs and practices and a commitment to diversity and inclusion.
We face a number of challenges that may affect our ability to sustain our corporate culture, including:
• failure to identify, attract, reward, and retain people in our organization who share and further our culture, values, and mission;
• the geographic diversity of our workforce, including as a result of remote work;
• competitive pressures to move in directions that may divert us from our mission, vision, and values;
• the continued challenges of a rapidly evolving industry;
• the increasing need to develop expertise in new areas of business that affect us;
• any negative perception of our response to employee sentiment related to political or social causes or actions of management;
• employee concerns regarding workforce reductions we have taken or may need to take in the future;
• harm to employee morale due to workforce reductions;
• challenges in our business and the macroeconomic environment; and
• the integration of new personnel and businesses from acquisitions.
If we are not able to maintain and evolve our culture, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
If we are unable to effectively combat the increasing number and sophistication of fraudulent activities by third parties using our platform, we may suffer losses, which may be substantial, and lose the confidence of our customers, and government agencies and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected.
Our industry has been experiencing an increasing number of fraudulent activities by third parties, and those fraudulent activities are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Although we do not believe that any of this activity is uniquely targeted at our platform or business, this type of fraudulent activity may adversely affect us. In addition to any losses that may result from such fraud, which may be substantial, a loss of confidence by our customers, or governmental agencies in our ability to prevent fraudulent activity that is perpetrated through our software platform or business may seriously harm our business and damage its brand. As fraudulent activities become more pervasive and increasingly sophisticated, and detection and measures must become correspondingly more complex to combat them across the various industries in which we operate, we may implement risk control mechanisms that could make it more for legitimate users to obtain access to and use our platform, which could result in revenue and affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. High profile activity or significant increases in activity could also lead to regulatory intervention, publicity, and the of trust from our customers and consumers, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be affected.
Our presence outside the United States and any future international expansion strategy will subject us to additional costs and risks and our plans may not be successful.
We have certain operations outside of the United States and we are considering expanding our presence internationally. Operating outside of the United States requires significant management attention to oversee operations over a broad geographic area with varying cultural norms and customs, in addition to placing strain on our finance, analytics, compliance, legal, engineering, and operations teams. We may incur significant operating expenses and may not be successful in our international expansion for a variety of reasons, including:
• recruiting, retaining and managing qualified employees in foreign countries that meet our needs, while maintaining our company culture across all of our offices and locations;
• an inability to attract and retain customers;
• complying with varying laws and regulatory standards, including with respect to financial services, labor and employment, data privacy, data protection, information security, tax, and local regulatory restrictions;
• obtaining any required government approvals, licenses, or other authorizations;
• varying levels of Internet and mobile technology adoption and infrastructure;
• currency exchange restrictions or costs and exchange rate fluctuations;
• operating in jurisdictions that do not protect intellectual property rights in the same manner or to the same extent as the United States;
• public health concerns or emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and other highly communicable diseases or viruses, outbreaks of which have from time to time occurred, and which may occur, in various parts of the world in which we operate or may operate in the future;
• potential adverse tax consequences; and
• limitations on the repatriation and investment of funds as well as foreign currency exchange restrictions.
Our lack of experience in operating our business internationally increases the risk that any potential future expansion efforts that we may undertake may not be successful. If we invest substantial time and resources to expand our operations internationally and are unable to manage these risks effectively, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
In addition, international expansion may increase our risks in complying with various laws and standards, including with respect to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, export controls, and trade and economic sanctions.
We may require additional capital to support business growth, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.
Historically, we have financed our operations primarily through equity issuances and cash collections from our customers. From time to time, we have engaged in debt financings and we may engage in debt transactions in the future. To support growing our business and to effectively compete, we must have sufficient capital to continue to make significant investments in our platform. We intend to continue to make investments to support the growth of our business and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop new platform features and services or enhance our existing platform, improve our operating infrastructure, or acquire complementary businesses and technologies. Additionally, we may consider adopting various employee compensation programs from time to time. The adoption of various employee compensation programs could result in us paying a greater percentage of our employees’ compensation in the form of cash. In particular, to the extent the perceived value of our equity awards declines, we may need to pay a greater proportion of compensation in cash. Such employee compensation programs could result in us using a larger amount of our cash reserves for the payment of compensation in future periods. In addition, to the extent we our tax withholding obligations with respect to equity compensation awards by withholding shares and remitting cash to the relevant tax authorities, we could be required to use significant amounts of cash. Any of these additional uses of cash could cause us to use a portion of our cash reserves for compensatory purposes and we may need to raise capital to support our cash position and ensure we have sufficient liquidity for our operations.
Although we currently anticipate that our existing cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities and cash collections from our customers will be sufficient to meet our working capital and capital expenditure needs for at least the next 12 months, we may require additional financing. Accordingly, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds.
If we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity, equity-linked securities, or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new securities we issue could have rights, preferences, and privileges superior to those of holders of our Class A common stock.
We evaluate financing opportunities from time to time, and our ability to obtain financing will depend, among other things, on our development efforts, business plans, and operating performance and the condition of the capital markets at the time we seek financing. We may not be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be impaired, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We have identified two material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and may identify additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, which may result in material misstatements of our consolidated financial statements or cause us to fail to meet our periodic reporting obligations.
In connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2025, we identified two material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting related to (i) the completeness and accuracy of data flows used to record revenue and (ii) information technology (“IT”) general controls for certain information systems that support our revenue and related financial reporting processes that are relevant to the preparation of our financial statements and the effectiveness of IT-dependent controls. See “Item 9.A–Controls and Procedures in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.” A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. We are taking measures to remediate the material weaknesses. With respect to the completeness and accuracy of data flows used to record revenue, we are designing and implementing procedures to ensure the completeness and accuracy of revenue data flows and automated data transformations, the accuracy of pricing, and the accuracy of customer order information used in revenue recognition. With respect to the IT general controls over information systems in our revenue process, we are designing and implementing more rigorous controls over user access reviews and program change management controls, as well as the monitoring of data processing and transfer. Although we believe these measures will remediate the material , there can be no assurance that the material will be remediated on a timely basis or at all, or that additional material will not be identified in the future. If we are to remediate the material , or if we experience additional material , our ability to record, process, and report financial information accurately, and to prepare financial statements within the time periods specified by the rules of the SEC, could be affected which, in turn, may affect our reputation and business and the market price of our Class A common stock.
If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.
As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”), and the rules and regulations of the applicable listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange. We expect that the requirements of these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting, and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming, and costly, and place significant strain on our systems, processes, and personnel.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we will file with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms and that information required to be disclosed in reports under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our principal executive and financial officers. We are also continuing to improve our internal control over financial reporting, which includes hiring additional accounting and financial personnel to implement such processes and controls. In order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, we have expended, and anticipate that we will continue to expend, significant resources, including accounting-related costs and significant management oversight. If any of these new or improved controls and systems does not perform as expected, we may experience material weaknesses in our controls. In this regard, in connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2025, we identified two material in our internal control over financial reporting. See “ We have identified two material in our internal control over financial reporting and may identify additional material in the future or otherwise to maintain an system of internal controls, which may result in material of our consolidated financial statements or cause us to to meet our periodic reporting obligations. ”
Our internal resources and personnel may in the future be insufficient to avoid accounting errors, and there can be no assurance that we will not have additional material weaknesses in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement could harm our results of operations or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting also could adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting that we will eventually be required to include in our periodic reports that will be filed with the SEC. disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a effect on the trading price of our Class A common stock. In addition, if we are to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be to remain listed on the New York Stock Exchange. As a public company, we are required to comply with the SEC rules that facilitate the implementation of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
We are required to provide an annual management report. However, our independent registered public accounting firm is not required to formally attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until after we are no longer an emerging growth company as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (“JOBS Act”). We expect that we will remain an emerging growth company until December 31, 2026. At such time, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event it is not satisfied with the level at which our internal control over financial reporting is documented, designed, or operating. Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations and could cause a decline in the price of our Class A common stock.
If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect or financial reporting standards or interpretations change, our results of operations could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires our management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported and disclosed in our financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates and assumptions on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant assumptions and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include those related to revenue recognition, stock-based compensation, valuations of acquired intangible assets and redeemable noncontrolling interest, and common stock valuations. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our results of operations to fall below the expectations of industry or financial analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the trading price of our Class A common stock.
Additionally, U.S. GAAP is subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), the SEC, and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported results of operations and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change. It is difficult to predict the impact of future changes to accounting principles or our accounting policies, any of which could adversely affect our reported results of operations.
Operating as a public company requires us to incur substantial costs and requires substantial management attention. In addition, key members of our management team have limited experience managing a public company.
As a public company, we have incurred and will continue to incur substantial legal, accounting, and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. For example, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the applicable requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the Dodd-Frank Act, the rules and regulations of the SEC, and the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange. For example, the Exchange Act requires, among other things, we file annual, quarterly, and current reports with respect to our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Compliance with these rules and regulations has increased and will continue to increase our legal and financial compliance costs, and increase demand on our systems, particularly after we are no longer an emerging growth company. In addition, as a public company, we may be subject to stockholder activism, which can lead to additional substantial costs, distract management, and impact the manner in which we operate our business in ways we cannot currently anticipate.
Many members of our management team have limited experience managing a publicly traded company, interacting with public company investors, and complying with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies. Our management team may not successfully or efficiently manage our ongoing operations as a public company subject to significant regulatory
oversight and reporting obligations under the federal securities laws and the continuous scrutiny of securities analysts and investors. These new obligations and constituents will require significant attention from our senior management and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our investment portfolio may become impaired by conditions in the financial markets and failures at financial institutions at which we deposit funds or maintain investments could adversely affect us.
We deposit substantial funds in financial institutions and may, from time to time, maintain cash balances at such financial institutions in excess of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) limit. These funds include amounts in our operating accounts, which are held primarily at three financial institutions and used for our day-to-day business operations. We also hold investments and settled funds in accounts held at financial institutions acting as brokers or custodians. Our investment portfolio generally consists of money market funds, U.S. treasury and agency securities, commercial paper, and corporate debt securities. The investments in our portfolio are subject to our investment policy, which focuses on the preservation of capital, fulfillment or our liquidity needs, and maximization of investment performance within the parameters set forth in our investment policy and subject to market conditions. Our investment policy sets forth credit rating minimums, permissible allocations, and limits our exposure to specific investment types. However, our investments are subject to general credit, liquidity, market, and interest rate risks and in particular, volatility in the global financial markets, including in specific segments of such markets, which can negatively impact the value of our investments and adversely affect our financial condition, cash flows and results of operations. In addition, we deposit certain funds owned by third parties, such as escrow deposits, in financial institutions. Should one or more of the financial institutions at which deposits are maintained , there is no guarantee as to the extent that we would recover the funds deposited, whether through FDIC coverage or otherwise, or the timing of any recovery. In the event of any such , we also could be held liable for the funds owned by third parties. Further, certain of our investments and settled funds are held at financial institutions. Should one or more of the financial institutions acting as brokers or custodians for our investments and settled funds , there may be a or some uncertainty in our ability to take possession of, or fully recover, all of our investments or settled funds.
Risks Related to Our Legal and Regulatory Environment
We may be subject to claims, lawsuits, government investigations, and other proceedings that may adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We face potential liability, expenses for legal claims, and harm to our business relating to the nature of our business generally, and with the lending and financial services we enable. We, or our partners, vendors, or other service providers, may be subject to claims, lawsuits, arbitration proceedings, government investigations and other legal, regulatory and other administrative proceedings in the ordinary course of business, including those involving compliance with regulatory requirements, personal injury, property damage, worker classification, labor and employment, anti-discrimination, commercial disputes, competition, consumer complaints, intellectual property disputes, and other matters, and we may become subject to additional types of claims, lawsuits, government investigations and legal or regulatory proceedings as our business grows and as we deploy new services.
In addition, a number of participants in the consumer financial and real estate settlement services industries have been the subject of putative class action lawsuits, state attorney general actions, other state regulatory actions, and federal regulatory enforcement actions, including actions relating to alleged unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices, violations of state licensing and disclosure laws and actions alleging discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, or other prohibited bases. The current regulatory environment, increased regulatory compliance efforts, and enhanced regulatory enforcement have resulted in us undertaking significant time-consuming and expensive operational and compliance efforts, which may delay or preclude our ability to provide certain new products and services to our customers and/or delay adoption of new products and services by our customers. Additionally, recent rulings from the Supreme Court, including to overrule their decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council , as well as statements from the new U.S. presidential administration have caused additional uncertainty regarding federal administrative authority. There is no assurance that these regulatory matters or other factors will not, in the future, affect how we conduct our business and, in turn, have an effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In particular, legal proceedings brought under state consumer protection statutes or under several of the various federal consumer financial services statutes may result in a separate fine assessed for each statutory and regulatory or substantial from class action lawsuits, potentially in excess of the amounts we earned from the underlying activities.
The results of any such claims, lawsuits, arbitration proceedings, government investigations, or other legal or regulatory proceedings cannot be predicted with any degree of certainty. Any claims against us, or our partners, vendors, or other service providers, whether meritorious or not, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, be harmful to our reputation, subject us to adverse media coverage, require significant management attention and divert significant resources. Determining reserves for pending litigation is a complex and fact-intensive process that requires significant subjective judgment and speculation. It is possible that a resolution of one or more such proceedings could result in substantial damages, settlement costs, fines and penalties that could affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. These proceedings, including those involving our partners, vendors, and other third parties, could also result in to our reputation and brand, sanctions, consent decrees, or other orders requiring a change in our business practices. Any of these consequences could affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Furthermore, under certain circumstances, we have contractual and other legal obligations to indemnify and to incur legal expenses on behalf of our business and partners and current and former directors and officers.
We also include arbitration and class action waiver provisions in our terms of service with many of our consumers. These provisions are intended to streamline the litigation process for all parties involved, as they can in some cases be faster and less costly than litigating disputes in state or federal court. However, arbitration can be costly and burdensome, and the use of arbitration and class action waiver provisions subjects us to certain risks to our reputation and brand, as these provisions have been the subject of increasing public scrutiny. In order to minimize these risks to our reputation and brand, we may limit our use of arbitration and class action waiver provisions or be required to do so in a legal or regulatory proceeding, either of which could cause an increase in our litigation costs and exposure.
Further, with the potential for conflicting rules regarding the scope and enforceability of arbitration and class action waivers on a state-by-state basis, as well as between state and federal law, there is a risk that some or all of our arbitration and class action waiver provisions could be subject to challenge or may need to be revised to exempt certain categories of protection. The enforceability of arbitration and class action waiver provisions has often been challenged, particularly recently, and if those challenges are successful, these provisions could be found to be unenforceable, in whole or in part, or specific claims could be required to be exempted. Any judicial decisions, legislation, or other rules or regulations that impair our ability to enter into and enforce our arbitration agreements and class action waivers could significantly increase our exposure to potentially costly lawsuits, our costs to litigate disputes, and the time involved in resolving such , each of which could affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our customers are, and in some cases we are or may be, subject to, and we facilitate compliance with, a variety of federal, state, and local laws, including those related to consumer protection and financial services.
Our customers and prospective customers are highly regulated and are generally required to comply with stringent regulations in connection with performing business functions that our products and services address; we facilitate compliance with these regulatory requirements. While we currently operate our business in an effort to ensure our business itself is not subject to extensive regulation, there is a risk that certain regulations could become applicable to us, including as we expand the functionality of and services offered through the platform. In addition, we and our partners, vendors, and other service providers must comply with laws and regulatory regimes that apply to us directly and our partners, vendors, and other service providers indirectly, including through certain of our products, as a technology provider to financial services firms, and in areas such as privacy, information security and data protection, and our contractual relationships with our customers.
In particular, certain laws, regulations, and rules our customers are subject to, and we facilitate compliance with, include the:
• TILA, and Regulation Z promulgated thereunder, and similar state laws, which require certain disclosures to borrowers regarding the terms and conditions of their loans and credit transactions, and require creditors to comply with certain lending practice restrictions as well as the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule, or TRID, which imposes specific requirements around the collection of information, charging of fees, and disclosure of specific loan terms and costs upon receipt of an application for credit;
• TISA, and Regulation DD thereunder, which impose disclosure requirements with respect to the terms and conditions of deposit accounts;
• RESPA, and Regulation X, which require certain disclosures to be made to the borrower at application, as to the financial services firm’s good faith estimate of loan origination costs, and at closing with respect to the real estate settlement statement; prohibits giving or accepting any fee, kickback or a thing of value for the referral of real estate settlement services or accepting a portion or split of a settlement fee other than for services actually provided; for
affiliated business relationships, prohibits receiving anything other than a legitimate return on ownership, requiring use of an affiliate, and failing to provide a disclosure of the affiliate relationship;
• ECOA, and Regulation B promulgated thereunder, and similar state fair lending laws, which prohibit creditors from discouraging or discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, marital status, the fact that all or part of the applicant’s income derives from any public assistance program or the fact that the applicant has in good faith exercised any right under the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act;
• FCRA, and Regulation V promulgated thereunder, impose certain obligations on consumer reporting agencies, users of consumer reports and those that furnish information to consumer reporting agencies, including obligations relating to obtaining consumer reports, marketing using consumer reports, taking adverse action on the basis of information from consumer reports and protecting the privacy and security of consumer reports and consumer report information;
• Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, and Section 1031 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which prohibits unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices in connection with any consumer financial product or service, and analogous state laws prohibiting unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices;
• GLBA, and Regulation P promulgated thereunder, which include limitations on financial services firms’ disclosure of nonpublic personal information about a consumer to nonaffiliated third parties, in certain circumstances requires financial services firms to limit the use and further disclosure of nonpublic personal information by nonaffiliated third parties to whom they disclose such information, and requires financial services firms to disclose certain privacy notices and practices with respect to information sharing with affiliated and unaffiliated entities as well as to safeguard personal borrower information, and other laws and regulations relating to privacy and security;
• EFTA, and Regulation E promulgated thereunder, which provide guidelines and restrictions on the electronic transfer of funds from consumers’ bank accounts, including requirements for overdraft services and a prohibition on a creditor requiring a consumer to repay a credit agreement in preauthorized (recurring) electronic fund transfers and disclosure and authorization requirements in connection with such transfers;
• HPA, which requires certain disclosures and the cancellation or termination of mortgage insurance once certain equity levels are reached;
• HMDA, and Regulation C, which require reporting of loan origination data, including the number of loan applications taken, approved, denied and withdrawn;
• Fair Housing Act (“FHA”), which prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, sex, national origin, and certain other characteristics;
• SAFE Act, which imposes state licensing requirements on mortgage loan originators;
• state laws and regulations impose requirements related to unfair or deceptive business practices and consumer protection, as well as other state laws relating to privacy, data protection, information security, and conduct in connection with data breaches;
• TCPA, and the regulations promulgated thereunder, which impose various consumer consent requirements and other restrictions in connection with telemarketing activity and other communication with consumers by phone, fax or text message, and which provide guidelines designed to safeguard consumer privacy in connection with such communications;
• CAN-SPAM Act, and the TSR, and analogous state laws, which impose various restrictions on marketing conducted by use of email, telephone, fax or text message;
• ESIGN Act, and similar state laws, particularly UETA, which authorize the creation of legally binding and enforceable agreements utilizing electronic records and signatures and which require financial services firms to obtain a consumer’s consent to electronically receive disclosures required under federal and state laws and regulations;
• ADA, which has been interpreted to include websites as “places of public accommodations” that must meet certain federal requirements related to access and use;
• RFPA, and similar state laws enacted to provide the financial records of financial services firms’ customers a reasonable amount of privacy from government scrutiny;
• BSA, and the USA PATRIOT Act, which relate to compliance with anti-money laundering, borrower due diligence and record-keeping policies and procedures;
• the regulations promulgated by OFAC, under the U.S. Treasury Department related to the administration and enforcement of sanctions against foreign jurisdictions and persons that threaten U.S. foreign policy and national security goals, primarily to prevent targeted jurisdictions and persons from accessing the U.S. financial system; and
• other state-specific and local laws and regulations.
In addition to the laws, regulations, and rules that apply to our customers, and that we facilitate compliance with, we, in our capacity as a service provider to financial services firms and as a provider of marketplace services directly to consumers, and our partners, vendors, and other service providers, may be deemed to be subject to certain laws, regulations, and rules through our relationships with our customers including RESPA, FCRA, FTC Act, GLBA, FHA, TCPA, CAN-SPAM, TSR, ESIGN Act, ADA, OFAC, and state-specific laws and regulations, including those that impose requirements related to unfair or deceptive business practices and consumer protection, as well as other state laws relating to privacy, information security, and conduct in connection with data breaches. We may also be examined on a periodic basis by various regulatory agencies and may be required to review certain of our partners, vendors, or other service providers. These potential examinations may lead to increased regulatory compliance efforts that are time-consuming and expensive operationally. Matters subject to review and examination by federal and state regulatory agencies and external auditors include our internal information technology controls in connection with our performance of services, the agreements giving rise to these activities, and the design of our platform. Any inability to these examinations and maintain compliance with applicable regulations could affect our ability to conduct our business, including attracting and maintaining customers. In addition, as a result of our business relationships, we may also be subject to direct or indirect supervision and examination by various authorities. For example, through contractual obligations to our customers that are banks, we are subject to their risk management standards for third-party relationships in accordance with federal bank regulatory guidance and examinations by the federal banking regulators. Should we or our bank customers be to these standards, we may have to certain relationships, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be affected.
In addition, we are currently subject to a variety of, and may in the future become subject to, additional, federal, state, and local laws that are continuously changing, including laws related to: title and settlement services, consumer reporting agency services, and property and casualty insurance industries; mobile- and internet-based businesses; and information security, advertising, privacy, data protection, and consumer protection. These laws can be costly to comply with, require significant management attention, and could subject us to claims, government enforcement actions, civil and criminal liability, or other remedies, including revocation of licenses and suspension of business operations.
Furthermore, federal and state officials are discussing various potential changes to laws and regulations that could impact us, including the reform of government-sponsored enterprises such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”), and additional data privacy laws and regulations, among others. Changes in these areas, generally in the regulatory environment in which we operate and our customers operate, could adversely impact the volume of mortgage originations in the United States and our competitive position and results of operations.
While we have developed policies and procedures designed to assist in compliance with these laws and regulations, no assurance can be given that our compliance policies and procedures will be effective. Compliance with these requirements is also costly, time-consuming and limits our operational flexibility. Additionally, Congress, the states and regulatory agencies, as well as local municipalities, could further regulate the consumer financial services and adjacent industries in ways that make it more difficult or costly for us to offer our platform and related services. These laws also are often subject to changes that could severely limit the operations of our business model. Further, changes in the regulatory application or judicial interpretation of the laws and regulations applicable to financial services firms also could impact the manner in which we conduct our business.
The regulatory environment in which financial services firms operate has become increasingly complex, and following the financial crisis that began in 2008, supervisory efforts to apply relevant laws, regulations and policies have become more intense. For example, California has enacted legislation to create a “mini-CFPB,” which could strengthen state consumer protection authority of state regulators over unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices. Nevertheless, if we or our partners, vendors or other service providers are found to not comply with applicable laws, we could become subject to greater scrutiny by federal and state regulatory agencies, or face other sanctions, which may have an adverse effect on our ability to continue to provide our services or make our platform available in particular states, or utilize the services of third-party providers, which may harm our business. In addition, non-compliance could subject us to damages, class action lawsuits, administrative enforcement actions, rescission rights held by investors in securities offerings and civil and liability, all of which would affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Changes in laws or regulations relating to privacy, information security, data protection, or the protection or transfer of personal information, or any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with such laws and regulations or any other obligations relating to privacy, information security, data protection, or the protection or transfer of personal information, could adversely affect our business.
We, and our partners, vendors, and other service providers, receive, collect, use, disclose, share, transfer, transmit, store, and otherwise process a large volume of personal information and other sensitive data relating to individuals, such as consumers and our employees. Our collection, use, receipt, and other processing of data in our business subjects us to numerous state, federal, and foreign laws and regulations, addressing privacy, information security, data protection, and the collection, storing, sharing, use, transfer, disclosure, protection, and processing of certain data. Such regulations include, for example, the GLBA, FCRA, California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) and the California Privacy Rights Act (the “CPRA”). These laws, rules, and regulations evolve frequently and their scope may continually change, through new legislation, amendments to existing legislation, and changes in interpretation or enforcement, and may impose conflicting and inconsistent obligations.
For example, in 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) amended the GLBA’s Safeguards Rule, which requires covered financial services firms, which may include some of our customers, to develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive information security program. The rule provides more prescriptive security controls that financial services firms must implement and oversight by a designated Qualified Individual who must provide annual written reports to the board of directors or equivalent governing body. The FTC further amended the GLBA’s Safeguards Rule in November 2023 to provide for reporting to the FTC certain security incidents in which unencrypted personal information involving 500 or more consumers is acquired without authorization. In addition, the FTC has brought enforcement actions against service providers of financial services firms directly and against financial services firms for failures by service providers to implement appropriate controls to safeguard consumers’ personal information.
The CCPA went into effect on January 1, 2020, and, among other things, requires certain disclosures to California consumers and affords such consumers certain data privacy rights. The California Attorney General can enforce the CCPA, including seeking an injunction and civil penalties of up to $7,500 per violation. The CCPA also provides a private right of action for certain data breaches that may increase data breach litigation. Additionally, the CPRA was approved by California voters in November 2020, and significantly modified the CCPA, including expanding California consumers’ rights with respect to certain personal information and creating a new state agency to oversee implementation and engage in enforcement efforts. The CPRA created obligations relating to consumer data beginning on January 1, 2022 and it became effective on January 1, 2023. Numerous states have proposed, and in certain cases enacted, legislation addressing privacy and data security that in many cases are similar to the CCPA and CPRA. For example, Connecticut, Virginia, Colorado, and Utah have enacted legislation similar to the CCPA and CPRA that took effect in 2023; Florida, Montana, Oregon, and Texas have enacted similar legislation that took effect in 2024; Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Tennessee have enacted similar legislation that took effect in 2025; and Indiana, Kentucky, and Rhode Island have enacted similar legislation that has taken or will take effect in 2026. The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (“CAADCA”), which expands the CPRA for businesses with websites that are likely to be accessed by children, was signed into law on September 15, 2022 and went into effect on July 1, 2024. New York enacted a law in June 2024 that, upon becoming on June 20, 2025, among other things, prohibits covered “operators” from collecting, using, sharing, and selling personal data of individuals under 18 years of age unless it is strictly necessary, as specified in such legislation, or where informed consent is obtained in accordance with specified requirements. This includes, in the case of individuals under 13 years of age, obtaining parental consent in a manner compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). Numerous other states have considered, and in certain cases enacted, laws that implement restrictions or prohibitions on the collection, use, or other processing of data relating to individuals under 18 years of age. The FTC also has proposed significant updates to its rules implementing COPPA that, among other changes, would create new obligations, and certain existing obligations, relating to the collection and other processing of personal information from individuals under 13 years of age.
The CCPA, CPRA, CAADCA, COPPA, other new and evolving state legislation, and other changes in laws or regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and information security, particularly any new or modified laws or regulations, or changes to the interpretation or enforcement of laws or regulations, that require enhanced protection of certain types of data or new obligations with regard to data retention, transfer, or disclosure, could add additional complexity and variations in requirements, restrictions, and legal risks, greatly increase the cost of providing our platform, require significant changes to our operations and additional investment of resources, impact strategies and the availability of previously useful data for processing, or prevent us from providing our platform in jurisdictions in which we currently operate and in which we may operate in the future. Certain other state laws impose similar privacy, data protection, and information security obligations and we also expect that more states may enact new legislation to provide consumers with new privacy rights and increase the privacy, data protection, and information security obligations of entities handling certain personal information of such consumers. In addition, some
jurisdictions, such as New York, Massachusetts, and Nevada have enacted more generalized information security laws that apply to certain data that we process. The U.S. federal government also has proposed legislation relating to privacy and data security, and the U.S. Department of Justice has issued rules restricting certain bulk transfers of sensitive personal information. We cannot yet fully determine the impact these or future laws, rules, regulations, and industry standards may have on our business or operations. Any such laws, rules, regulations, and industry standards may be inconsistent, subject to differing interpretations, or may conflict, or be alleged to conflict, with our current or future practices. Additionally, our customers may be subject to differing privacy laws, rules, and legislation, or self-regulatory principles, codes, or other obligations, which may cause them to require us to be bound by varying contractual requirements, including certain requirements applicable to other jurisdictions. Adherence to such contractual requirements may impact our collection, use, storage, sharing, disclosure, and processing of various types of information and may mean we become bound by, or voluntarily comply with, self-regulatory or other industry standards, or other actual or asserted obligations, relating to these matters that may further change as laws, rules, and regulations evolve. Complying with these requirements and other actual or asserted obligations, and changing our policies and practices may be and , and we may not be to respond quickly or effectively to regulatory, legislative and other developments. These changes may in turn our ability to offer our existing or planned products and services and/or increase our cost of doing business.
Additionally, we have incurred, and may continue to incur, significant expenses in an effort to comply with privacy, data protection, and information security standards and protocols imposed by law, regulation, industry standards, contractual obligations, or other actual or asserted obligations, and may face substantial challenges in our efforts to do so. We may face challenges in addressing their requirements and making necessary changes to our policies and practices and may incur significant costs and expenses in an effort to do so.
As our business grows, we may become subject to privacy, data protection, and information security laws from jurisdictions outside of the United States, potentially including the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). The GDPR governs the collection, use, disclosure, transfer or other processing of personal data of European persons. Among other things, the GDPR imposes requirements regarding the security of personal data and notification of data processing obligations to competent national data processing authorities, provides for lawful bases on which personal data can be processed, provides for an expansive definition of personal data and requires changes to informed consent practices. In addition, the GDPR provides for heightened scrutiny of transfers of personal data from the European Economic Area (“EEA”) to the United States and other jurisdictions that the European Commission does not recognize as having “adequate” data protection laws, and imposes substantial fines for breaches and violations (up to the greater of €20 million or 4% of an enterprise’s consolidated annual worldwide gross revenue). The GDPR also confers a private right of action on data subjects and consumer associations to lodge complaints with supervisory authorities, seek judicial remedies and obtain compensation for resulting from . The United Kingdom has implemented legislation that substantially implements the GDPR in the United Kingdom, which legislation provides for for of up to the of £17.5 million or 4% of an enterprise’s consolidated annual worldwide gross revenue. The United Kingdom made targeted amendments to this legislation in the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on June 19, 2025. If we expand our business into the EEA and/or the United Kingdom, we will need to comply with their laws addressing privacy, data protection, and information security. This will involve significant resources and expense and may also our ability to offer our existing or planned features, products and services and/or increase our cost of doing business.
Despite our efforts to comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other obligations relating to privacy, data protection, and information security, it is possible that our interpretations of the law, practices, or platform could be inconsistent with, or fail or be alleged to fail to meet all requirements of, such laws, regulations, or actual or asserted obligations. Our failure, or the failure by our partners, vendors, service providers, or customers, to comply with applicable laws or regulations, policies, documentation, contractual obligations, or any other actual or asserted obligations relating to privacy, data protection, or information security, or any compromise of security that results in unauthorized access to, or use, release, disclosure, or other processing of data relating to consumers or other individuals, or the perception that any of the foregoing types of failure or compromise has occurred, could damage our reputation, discourage new and existing customers and consumers from using our platform, or result in , , or proceedings by governmental agencies and private and , any of which could affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Even if not subject to legal , the perception of privacy, data protection, or information security , whether or not valid, may our reputation and brand and affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
A heightened regulatory environment in the financial services industry may have an adverse impact on our customers and our business.
Since the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act, a number of substantial regulations affecting the supervision and operation of the financial services industry within the United States have been adopted, including those that establish the CFPB. The CFPB has issued guidance that applies to, and conducts direct examinations of, “supervised banks and nonbanks” as well as “supervised service providers” like us. In addition, the CFPB regulates consumer financial products and services. Certain of our partners are also subject to regulation by federal and state authorities and, as a result, could pass through some of those compliance obligations to us.
To the extent this oversight or regulation negatively impacts our customers, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected because, among other matters, our customers could have less capacity to purchase products and services from us, could decide to avoid or abandon certain lines of business, or could seek to pass on increased costs to us by re-negotiating their agreements with us. Additional regulation, examination, and oversight of us could require us to modify the manner in which we contract with or provide products and services to our customers, directly or indirectly limit how much we can charge for our products and services, require us to invest additional time and resources to comply with such oversight and regulations, or limit our ability to update our existing products and services, or require us to develop new ones. Any of these events, if realized, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We and our insurance carriers and underwriters are subject to extensive insurance industry regulations.
In the United States, each state regulator retains the authority to license insurance agencies in their states, and an insurance agency generally may not operate in a state in which it is not licensed. Accordingly, we are not permitted to sell insurance to residents of states and territories of the United States in which we are not licensed.
Employees who engage in the solicitation, negotiation, or sale of insurance, or provide certain other insurance services, generally are required to be licensed individually. Insurance, including related laws and regulations, govern whether licensees may share commissions with unlicensed entities and individuals and, in the context of real estate settlement transactions, such payments are also subject to RESPA restrictions as it relates to splitting or sharing settlement service fees. We believe that any payments we make to third parties are in compliance with applicable laws. However, should any regulatory agency take a contrary position and prevail, we will be required to change the manner in which we pay fees to such employees or principals or require entities receiving such payments to become registered or licensed.
Our insurance products are subject to extensive regulation and supervision in the states in which we transact business by the individual state insurance departments. This regulation is generally designed to protect the interests of consumers, and not necessarily the interests of insurers or agents, their shareholders or other investors. For example, state insurance laws are generally prescriptive with respect to the content and timeliness of notices we must provide policyholders. States have also adopted legislation defining and prohibiting unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts and practices in the business of insurance that may apply to insurance agencies. Noncompliance with any of such state statutes may subject us to regulatory action by the relevant state insurance regulator, and, in certain states, private litigation. In addition, we cannot predict the impact that any new laws, rules or regulations may have on our business and financial results. States also regulate various aspects of the contractual relationships between insurers and independent agents. The California Department of Insurance, the insurance regulatory authority in the State of California, as well as the insurance regulators of other states in which we are licensed to sell insurance may also conduct periodic examinations. The results of these examinations can give rise to regulatory orders requiring remedial, injunctive, or other corrective action.
Although state insurance regulators have primary responsibility for administering and enforcing insurance regulations in the United States, such laws and regulations are further administered and enforced by a number of additional governmental authorities, each of which exercises a degree of interpretive latitude, including state securities administrators, state attorneys general as well as federal agencies including the Federal Reserve, the Federal Insurance Office and the U.S. Department of Justice. Consequently, compliance with any particular regulator’s or enforcement authority’s interpretation of a legal issue may not result in compliance with another’s interpretation of the same issue, particularly when compliance is judged in hindsight.
We may be subject to restrictions, actions and claims relating to the advertising, marketing and sale of insurance, including the suitability of such products and services. Actions and claims may result in the rescission of such sales; consequently, insurance carriers may seek to recoup commissions paid to us, which may lead to legal action against us. The outcome of such restrictions or actions cannot be predicted and such restrictions, claims or actions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Additionally, regulations affecting insurance carriers and underwriters with which we place business may affect how we conduct our operations. Insurers are also regulated by state insurance departments for solvency issues and are subject to reserve requirements. We cannot guarantee that all insurance carriers and underwriters with whom we do business comply with regulations instituted by state insurance departments. We may need to expend resources to address questions or concerns regarding our relationships with these insurers and underwriters, diverting management resources away from operating our business, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
The CFPB is a relatively new agency that has sometimes taken expansive views of its authority to regulate consumer financial services, creating uncertainty as to how the agency’s actions or the actions of any other new agency could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
The CFPB, which commenced operations in July 2011, has broad authority to create and modify regulations under federal consumer financial protection laws and regulations, such as TILA and Regulation Z, TISA and Regulation DD, ECOA and Regulation B, FCRA and Regulation V, the EFTA and Regulation E, among other regulations, and to enforce compliance with those laws. The CFPB supervises banks, thrifts, and credit unions with assets over $10 billion and examines certain of our customers. Further, the CFPB is charged with the examination and supervision of certain participants in the consumer financial services market, including larger participants in other areas of financial services. The CFPB is also authorized to prevent “unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices” through its rulemaking, supervisory, and enforcement authority. To assist in its enforcement, the CFPB maintains an online complaint system that allows consumers to log complaints with respect to various consumer finance products. This system could inform future CFPB decisions with respect to its regulatory, enforcement or examination focus. The CFPB may also request reports concerning our organization, business conduct, markets and activities and conduct on-site examinations of our business on a periodic basis if the CFPB were to determine, through its complaint system, that we were engaging in activities that pose risks to consumers.
Although we have committed resources to enhancing our compliance programs, actions by the CFPB (or other regulators) against us, our customers or our competitors could discourage the use of our services or those of our customers, which could result in reputational harm, a loss of customers, or discourage the use of our or their services and adversely affect our business. If the CFPB changes regulations that were adopted in the past by other regulators and transferred to the CFPB by the Dodd-Frank Act, or modifies through supervision or enforcement, past regulatory guidance or interprets existing regulations in a different or stricter manner than they have been interpreted in the past by us, the industry or other regulators, our compliance costs and litigation exposure could increase materially. If the CFPB, or another regulator, were to issue a consent decree or other similar order against us, this could also directly or indirectly adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our compliance and operational costs and litigation exposure could increase if and when the CFPB amends or finalizes any proposed regulations, including the regulations discussed above or if the CFPB or other regulators enact new regulations, change regulations that were previously adopted, modify, through supervision or enforcement, past regulatory guidance, or interpret existing regulations in a manner different or stricter than have been previously interpreted.
Our business could be adversely impacted by changes in the Internet and mobile device accessibility of consumers, and our software platform’s failure to comply with existing or future laws governing the Internet and mobile devices.
Our business depends on consumers’ access to our platform via the Internet and/or a mobile device. We may operate in jurisdictions that provide limited Internet connectivity, particularly if we expand internationally. Internet access and access to a mobile device are frequently provided by companies with significant market power that could take actions that degrade, disrupt, or increase the cost of consumers’ ability to access our platform. In addition, the Internet infrastructure that we and users of our platform rely on in any particular geographic area may be unable to support the demands placed upon it. Any such failure in Internet or mobile device accessibility, even for a short period of time, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Moreover, the application of laws and regulations to online platforms is constantly evolving. Existing and future laws and regulations, or changes thereto, may impede the growth and availability of the Internet and online offerings, require us to change our business practices, or raise compliance costs or other costs of doing business. These laws and regulations, which continue to evolve, cover consumer protection, advertising practices and provision of disclosures, among other things. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us, or our software platform, as applicable, to comply with any of these laws or regulations could result in damage to our reputation and brand a loss in business and proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Indemnity provisions in various agreements potentially expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement, data protection and other losses.
Our agreements with customers and other third parties may include indemnification provisions under which we agree to indemnify them for losses suffered or incurred as a result of claims of intellectual property infringement, data protection, damages caused by us to property or persons, or other liabilities relating to or arising from our platform, services, or other contractual obligations. Some of these indemnity agreements provide for uncapped liability for which we would be responsible, and some indemnity provisions survive termination or expiration of the applicable agreement. We also cannot be certain that any provisions in these agreements relating to limitations of liability would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim. Large indemnity payments could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Although we carry general liability insurance, our insurance may not cover potential claims of this type or may not be adequate to indemnify us for all liability that may be imposed. We generally contractually limit our liability with respect to such obligations, but we may still incur substantial liability related to such obligations and we may be required to use of certain functions of our platform or services as a result of any such . Any with a customer or third party with respect to such obligations could our relationship with that customer or third party, as well as other existing customers and new customers, and affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to various U.S. and international anti-corruption laws and other anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws and regulations.
We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (as amended, the “FCPA”), and other anti-corruption, and anti-bribery laws in the jurisdictions in which we do business, both domestic and abroad. These laws generally prohibit us and our employees from improperly influencing government officials or commercial parties in order to obtain or retain business, direct business to any person, or gain any improper advantage. The FCPA and other applicable anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws also may hold us liable for acts of corruption and bribery committed by our partners, representatives, and agents who are acting on our behalf. We and our partners, representatives, and agents may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities and we may be held liable for the corrupt or other activities of these partners and intermediaries and our employees, representatives, contractors, and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. These laws also require that we keep accurate books and records and maintain internal controls and compliance procedures designed to prevent any such actions. While we have policies and procedures to address compliance with such laws, we cannot you that our employees and agents will not take actions in of our policies or applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible, and our exposure for these laws increases as our international presence expands and as we increase sales and operations in foreign jurisdictions.
Any violation of the FCPA or other applicable anti-bribery, and anti-corruption laws could result in whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage, investigations, imposition of significant legal fees, loss of export privileges, severe criminal or civil sanctions, or suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracts, substantial diversion of management’s attention, a drop in our stock price, or overall adverse consequences to our business, all of which may have an adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Taxing authorities may successfully assert that we have not properly collected or remitted, or in the future should collect or remit, sales and use, gross receipts, value added, or similar taxes or withholding taxes, and may successfully impose additional obligations on us, and any such assessments, obligations, or inaccuracies could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
The application of indirect taxes, such as sales and use tax, value-added tax, goods and services tax, business tax and gross receipts tax, to platform businesses is a complex and evolving issue. Many of the fundamental statutes and regulations that impose these taxes were established before the adoption and growth of the Internet and e-commerce. Significant judgment is required on an ongoing basis to evaluate applicable tax obligations and as a result amounts recorded are estimates and are subject to adjustments. In many cases, the ultimate tax determination is uncertain because it is not clear how new and existing statutes might apply to our business. In addition, governments are increasingly looking for ways to increase revenue, which has resulted in discussions about tax reform and other legislative action to increase tax revenue, including through indirect taxes.
We may face various indirect tax audits in various U.S. jurisdictions. In certain jurisdictions, we collect and remit indirect taxes. However, tax authorities may raise questions about or challenge or disagree with our calculation, reporting or collection of taxes and may require us to collect taxes in jurisdictions in which we do not currently do so or to remit additional taxes and interest, and could impose associated penalties and fees. For example, after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v.
Wayfair Inc. , certain states have adopted, or started to enforce, laws that may require the calculation, collection and remittance of taxes on sales in their jurisdictions, even if we do not have a physical presence in such jurisdictions. A successful assertion by one or more tax authorities requiring us to collect taxes in jurisdictions in which we do not currently do so or to collect additional taxes in a jurisdiction in which we currently collect taxes, could result in substantial tax liabilities, including taxes on past sales, as well as penalties and interest, could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
As a result of these and other factors, the ultimate amount of tax obligations owed may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements and any such difference may adversely impact our results of operations in future periods in which we change our estimates of our tax obligations or in which the ultimate tax outcome is determined.
Changes in, or interpretations of, U.S. and international tax laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The tax regimes we are subject to or operate under are unsettled and may be subject to significant change. Changes in tax laws or tax rulings, or changes in interpretations of existing laws, could cause us to be subject to additional income-based taxes and non-income taxes (such as payroll, sales, use, value-added, digital tax, net worth, property, and goods and services taxes), which in turn could materially affect our financial position and results of operations. Additionally, new, changed, modified, or newly interpreted or applied tax laws could increase our customers’ and our compliance, operating and other costs, as well as the costs of our products. For example, under provisions enacted in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Tax Act”), beginning January 1, 2022, all U.S. and non-U.S. based research and experimental expenditures must be capitalized and amortized over five and fifteen years, respectively. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act ("OBBB"), enacted on July 4, 2025, revised these rules, permitting the deduction of certain U.S. research and development expenditures incurred in tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2025, but expenditures attributable to research and development conducted outside the U.S. must continue to be capitalized and amortized over a 15-year period. The OBBB also made changes to the calculation and deductibility of global intangible low-taxed income (renamed Net CFC Tested Income) and foreign-derived intangible income (renamed Foreign-Derived Deduction Eligible Income), in each case, a portion of which is generally deductible for U.S. federal income tax purposes for corporate taxpayers. Furthermore, on August 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “IRA”), was signed into law, with tax provisions primarily focused on implementing a 15% minimum tax on global adjusted financial statement income, for tax years beginning after December 31, 2022, and a 1% excise tax on share repurchases occurring after December 31, 2022. As we expand the scale of our business activities, any changes in the U.S. and international taxation of such activities may increase our tax rate and our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
As of December 31, 2025, we had net operating loss carryforwards, (“NOLs”), for federal and state income tax purposes of approximately $636.3 million and $434.5 million, respectively, available to reduce future taxable income. The federal net operating losses generated before 2018 will begin to expire in 2028. The federal net operating losses generated in and after 2018 may be carried forward indefinitely. The expiration of state NOL carryforwards vary by state and begin to expire in 2026. Further, as of December 31, 2025, we had research and development tax credits carryforwards for federal and state income tax purposes of approximately $25.7 million and $14.1 million, respectively, available to reduce future tax liabilities. Federal research and development tax credits will begin to expire in 2033 and the state research and development tax credits can be carried forward indefinitely. It is possible that we will not generate taxable income in time to use NOLs or tax credits before their expiration, or at all. Under Section 382 and Section 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (as amended, the “Code”), if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change NOLs and other tax attributes, including research and development tax credits, to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. In general, an “ownership change” will occur if there is a cumulative change in our ownership by “5 percent stockholders” that exceeds 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. Our ability to use NOLs and other tax attributes to reduce future taxable income and liabilities may be subject to annual as a result of ownership changes that may occur in the future (which may be outside our control).
Federal NOLs arising in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 are generally subject to an 80% of taxable income limitation (as calculated before taking the NOLs into account). Our state NOLs and our tax credits may also be subject to limitations. For example, California legislation enacted in June 2024 limits the use of California state net operating loss carryforwards and tax credits for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2024 and before January 1, 2027, which may adversely affect us if we earn taxable income in the impacted tax years. In future years, if and when a net deferred tax asset is recognized related to our NOLs, the changes in the carryforward/carryback periods as well as the new limitation on use of NOLs may significantly impact our valuation allowance assessments for NOLs and tax credits.
Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties
We rely on partners, vendors, and other service providers to provide some of the software or data for our platform. If such partners, vendors, and other service providers interfere with the distribution of our platform or with our use of such software, our business could be adversely affected.
We rely upon certain partners, vendors, and other service providers to provide data used in, and software employed by, our platform and services or by customers and consumers using our platform and services, and it is possible that such software or data may not be reliable. From time to time we may in the future have disputes with certain of our partners, vendors, and other service providers. If, in connection with such a dispute, a partner, vendor, or service provider terminates its relationship with us or otherwise limits the provision of their software or data to us, the availability or usage of our platform could be disrupted. If the partners, vendors, and other service providers we rely upon cease to provide access to the software and/or data that we and our customers and consumers use, whether in connection with disputes or otherwise, do not provide access to such software and/or data on terms that we believe to be attractive or reasonable, or do not provide us with the most current version of such software, we may be required to seek comparable software and/or data from other sources, which may be more expensive or , or may not be available at all, any of which would affect our business.
We primarily rely on Amazon Web Services to deliver our services to users on our platform, and any disruption of or interference with our use of Amazon Web Services could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We currently host our platform and support our operations using data centers provided by Amazon Web Services (“AWS”), a third-party provider of cloud infrastructure services. We do not have control over the operations of the facilities of AWS that we use. AWS’ facilities are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, cyberattacks, terrorist attacks, power outages, infrastructure changes, human error, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, computer viruses, ransomware, malware, and similar events or acts of misconduct. Our platform’s continuing and uninterrupted performance is critical to our success. We have experienced, and expect that in the future we will experience interruptions, , and in service and availability from time to time due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software , website hosting , and capacity constraints. In addition, any changes in AWS’ service levels may affect our ability to meet the requirements of users on our platform. Since our platform’s continuing and uninterrupted performance is to our , sustained or repeated system would reduce the of our platform. It may become increasingly to maintain and our performance, especially during peak usage times, as we expand and the usage of our platform increases. Any publicity arising from these and any of the above circumstances or events may our reputation and brand, reduce the availability or usage of our platform, lead to a significant short-term of revenue, increase our costs, and our ability to attract new users, any of which could affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our master agreement with AWS will remain in effect until terminated by AWS or us. We have a three-year agreement with AWS, expiring on June 30, 2026, that may only be terminated by us or AWS for cause upon a material breach of the agreement, subject to the terminating party providing prior written notice and a 30-day cure period. Even though our platform is entirely in the cloud, our plan is to be vendor-agnostic and we believe that we could transition to one or more alternative cloud infrastructure providers on commercially reasonable terms. We do not believe that such transfer to, or the addition of, new cloud infrastructure service providers would cause substantial harm to our business, financial condition, and results of operations over the longer term.
We depend on the interoperability of our platform across third-party applications and services that we do not control.
We have built integrations with many technology partners, including leading providers of customer relationship management platforms, loan origination systems, core banking systems, document generation systems, income and asset verification services, and pricing and product engines, and a variety of other service providers. Third-party applications, products, and services are constantly evolving, and we may not be able to maintain or modify our platform to ensure its compatibility with third-party offerings following development changes. In addition, some of our competitors, partners, or other service providers may take actions that disrupt the interoperability of our platform with their own products or services, or exert strong business influence on our ability to, and the terms on which we operate our platform. As our platform evolves, we expect the types and levels of competition we face to increase. Should any of our competitors, partners, or other service providers modify their technologies, standards, or terms of use in a manner that degrades the functionality or performance of our platform or is otherwise unsatisfactory to us or gives preferential treatment to our other competitors’ products or services, our platform, business, financial condition, and results of operations could be affected.
The loss of access to credit, employment, financial and other data from external sources could harm our ability to provide our products and services.
We rely on a wide variety of data sources to provide our services and products, including data collected from applicants and borrowers, credit bureaus, payroll providers, data aggregators, and unaffiliated third parties. If we are unable to access and use data collected from or on behalf of applicants and borrowers, or other third-party data, or our access to such data is limited, our ability to provide our services and enable our customers to verify applicant data would be compromised. Any of the foregoing could negatively impact the consumer experience of our platform, the volume of loans enabled through our platform, the delivery of certain services and the degree of automation in our application process and on our platform.
Further, although we utilize third parties to enable financial services firms to verify the income and employment information provided by certain selected applicants, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of applicant information. Information provided by borrowers may be incomplete, inaccurate, or intentionally false. Any of the foregoing could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
Failure to adequately protect our intellectual property could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our business depends on our intellectual property, the protection of which is important to the success of our business. We rely on a combination of trademark, trade secret, copyright, and patent law and contractual restrictions to protect our intellectual property. In addition, we attempt to protect our intellectual property, technology, and confidential information by requiring our employees and consultants who develop intellectual property on our behalf to enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements, and third parties we share information with to enter into nondisclosure agreements. These agreements may not effectively prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information, intellectual property, or technology and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information or technology, or infringement of our intellectual property. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may copy aspects of our platform or other software, technology, and functionality or obtain and use information that we consider proprietary. In addition, unauthorized parties may also attempt, or endeavor, to obtain our intellectual property, confidential information, and trade secrets through various methods, including through , and legal or other methods of protecting this data may be .
We have registered the term “Blend” in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, and as of December 31, 2025, we had pending trademark applications in the United States. Additionally, we have registered domain names that we use in, or are related to, our business, most importantly blend.com. Competitors have and may continue to adopt service names similar to ours, thereby harming our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to user confusion. In addition, there could be potential trade name or trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other trademarks that are similar to our trademarks. As of December 31, 2025, we had one issued patent in the United States. Litigation or proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or other governmental authorities and administrative bodies in the United States and abroad may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. Further, we may not timely or successfully apply for a patent or register our trademarks or otherwise secure our intellectual property. Our efforts to protect, maintain, or enforce our proprietary rights may be and could result in substantial costs and of resources, which could affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Intellectual property infringement assertions by third parties could result in significant costs and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and reputation.
We operate in an industry with frequent intellectual property litigation. Other parties may assert that we have infringed their intellectual property rights. We could be required to pay substantial damages or cease using intellectual property or technology that is deemed infringing.
Further, we cannot predict whether assertions of third-party intellectual property rights or claims arising from such assertions would substantially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. The defense of these claims and any future infringement claims, whether they are with or without merit or are determined in our favor, may result in costly litigation and diversion of technical and management personnel. Further, an adverse outcome of a dispute may require us to pay damages, potentially including treble damages and attorneys’ fees if we are found to have willfully infringed a party’s patent or copyright rights, making, licensing, or using products that are to incorporate the intellectual property of others, expend additional development resources to redesign our offerings, and enter into potentially royalty or license agreements in order to obtain the right to use necessary technologies. Royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may be on terms acceptable to us, or at all. In any event, we may need to license intellectual property which would require us to pay royalties or make one-time payments. Even if these matters do not result in or are resolved in our favor or without significant cash settlements, the time and resources necessary to them could affect our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations, and reputation.
Our platform contains third-party open source software components, and failure to comply with the terms of the underlying open source software licenses could restrict our ability to provide our platform.
Our platform contains software modules licensed to us by third-party authors under “open source” licenses. Use and distribution of open source software may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide support, warranties, indemnification, or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. In addition, the public availability of such software may make it easier for others to compromise our platform.
Some open source licenses contain requirements that may, depending on how the licensed software is used or modified, require that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the licensed open source software, authorize further modification and redistribution of that source code, make that source code available at little or no cost, or grant other licenses to our intellectual property. If we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain open source licenses, be required to release the source code of our proprietary software under the terms of an open source software license. This could enable our competitors to create similar offerings with lower development effort and time and ultimately could result in a loss of our competitive advantages. Alternatively, to avoid the release of the affected portions of our source code, we could be required to purchase additional licenses, expend substantial time, and resources to re-engineer some or all of our software or cease use or distribution of some or all of our software until we can adequately address the concerns.
Although we have certain policies and procedures in place to monitor our use of open source software that are designed to avoid subjecting our platform to conditions, those policies and procedures may not be effective to detect or address all such conditions. In addition, the terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts, and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a way that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to provide or distribute our platform. From time to time, there have been claims challenging the ownership of open source software against companies that incorporate open source software into their solutions. As a result, we could be subject to lawsuits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software. If we are held to have breached or failed to fully comply with all the terms and conditions of an open source software license, we could face infringement or other liability, or be required to seek licenses from third parties to continue providing our platform on terms that are not economically feasible, to re-engineer our platform, to or the provision of our platform if re-engineering could not be on a timely basis, or to make generally available, in source code form, our proprietary code, any of which could affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock
The multi-class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting power with Nima Ghamsari, Head of Blend, Co-Founder, and Chair of our board of directors, which will severely limit your ability to influence or direct the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of our board of directors, the adoption
of amendments to our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, and the approval of any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets or other major corporate transaction.
Our Class A common stock has one vote per share, our Class B common stock has 40 votes per share, and our Class C common stock has no voting rights, except as otherwise required by law. As of December 31, 2025, Nima Ghamsari, Head of Blend, Co-Founder, and Chair of our board of directors, beneficially owns all of the issued and outstanding shares of our Class B common stock. As of December 31, 2025, the shares beneficially owned by Mr. Ghamsari represented approximately 31% of the total voting power of our outstanding capital stock, which voting power may increase over time as Mr. Ghamsari exercises equity awards and exchanges them for our Class B common stock under the Equity Exchange Agreement. If all such equity awards held by Mr. Ghamsari (including the Co-Founder and Head of Blend Long-Term Performance Award) had been exercised for cash as of December 31, 2025, Mr. Ghamsari would hold approximately 82% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock. As a result, for the foreseeable future, Mr. Ghamsari will be able to significantly influence matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including the election of members of our board of directors, the adoption of amendments to our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, and the approval of any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets or other major corporate transaction. Mr. Ghamsari may have interests that differ from yours and may vote in a way with which you and which may be to your interest. The concentration of control will limit or your ability to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future and could have the effect of , , or a change in control of our company, could you and other holders of Class A common stock of an to receive a premium for your Class A common stock as part of a sale of our company and could affect the market price of our Class A common stock. In addition, this may prevent or unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our capital stock that you may feel are in your interest as one of our stockholders.
Because of the 40-to-one voting ratio between our Class B and Class A common stock, even if Mr. Ghamsari transfers or sells a significant number of shares of Class A common stock, he will continue to control a significant portion of the voting power of our capital stock based on his current ownership. Transfers by Mr. Ghamsari and his affiliates of Class B common stock generally result in those shares converting into shares of Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain transfers effected for estate planning or charitable purposes. In addition, each share of Class B common stock will convert automatically into one share of Class A common stock upon (i) the date fixed by our board of directors that is no less than 61 days and no more than 180 days following the first date following the completion of our initial public offering (“IPO”), on which the number of shares of our capital stock, including Class A common stock, Class B common stock, and Class C common stock, and any shares of capital stock underlying equity securities or other convertible instruments, held by Mr. Ghamsari and his affiliates is less than 35% of the number of shares of Class B common stock held by Mr. Ghamsari and his affiliates as of immediately following the completion of our IPO, which we sometimes refer to herein as the 35% Ownership Threshold; (ii) 12 months after the death or total disability of Mr. Ghamsari, during which 12-month period the shares of our Class B common stock shall be voted as directed by a person designated by Mr. Ghamsari and approved by our board of directors (or if there is no such person, then our secretary then in office); (iii) the date fixed by our board of directors that is no less than 61 days and no more than 180 days following the date on which Mr. Ghamsari is for cause (as defined in our Amended and Certificate of Incorporation); (iv) the date fixed by our board of directors that is no less than 61 days and no more than 180 days following the date upon which (A) Mr. Ghamsari is no longer providing services to us as an officer or employee and (B) Mr. Ghamsari is no longer a member of our board of directors, either as a result of Mr. Ghamsari’s voluntary or as a result of a request or agreement by Mr. Ghamsari at a meeting of our stockholders for Mr. Ghamsari not to be renominated as a member of our board of directors; or (v) the 50-year anniversary of the completion of our IPO. We refer to the date on which such final conversion of all outstanding shares of Class B common stock pursuant to the terms of our Amended and Certificate of Incorporation occurs as the Final Conversion Date.
No shares of our Class C common stock, which entitle the holder to zero votes per share (except as otherwise required by law), were issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2025 and we have no current plans to issue shares of Class C common stock. These shares will be available to be used in the future to further strategic initiatives, such as financings or acquisitions, or issue future equity awards to our service providers. Over time the issuance of shares of Class A common stock will result in voting dilution to all of our stockholders and this dilution could eventually result in Mr. Ghamsari and his affiliates holding a lower percentage of our total outstanding voting power. Because the shares of Class C common stock have no voting rights (except as required by law), the issuance of such shares will not result in further voting dilution, which would prolong the significant voting influence of Mr. Ghamsari. Further, the issuance of such shares of Class C common stock to Mr. Ghamsari would also delay the final conversion of all of our outstanding Class B common stock because shares of Class C common stock issued to Mr. Ghamsari would be counted when determining whether the 35% Ownership Threshold has been met. As a result, the issuance of shares of Class C common stock could prolong the duration of Mr. Ghamsari’s significant influence on the election of our directors and outcome of most matters submitted to a vote of our stockholders. In addition, we could issue shares of Class C common stock to Mr. Ghamsari and, in that event, he would be to sell such shares of Class C common stock and liquidity in his holdings without his voting control. Sales of significant amounts of stock by Mr. Ghamsari
or changes in our capital structure, including as a result of the Final Conversion Date, could result in a change of control or cause volatility in our stock price and uncertainty. Any future issuances of shares of Class C common stock will not be subject to approval by our stockholders except as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange.
The trading price of our Class A common stock has been and may continue to be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
The trading price of our Class A common stock has been and may continue to be volatile and could be subject to fluctuations or declines in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. These fluctuations could cause you to lose all or part of your investment in our Class A common stock since you might be unable to sell your shares at or above the price you paid for such shares. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the trading price of our Class A common stock include the following:
• price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time;
• volatility in the trading prices and trading volumes of technology stocks;
• changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of other technology companies generally, or those in our industry in particular;
• sales of shares of our Class A common stock by us or our stockholders, including sales by or on behalf of Nima Ghamsari, Head of Blend, Co-Founder and Chair of our board of directors, to reduce or satisfy the outstanding amounts under his personal loans as required or permitted under his loan documentation with certain lenders (including as a result of foreclosure), under which he has pledged shares of his Class A common stock to secure certain personal indebtedness, or for any other reason;
• changes in our capital structure, including as a result of the Final Conversion Date, which could result in a change of control;
• the amounts and timing of repurchases, if any, under our share repurchase program;
• failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage of us or changes in financial estimates by securities analysts who follow our company;
• failure to meet our financial estimates or expectations or the financial estimates or expectations of securities analysts or investors;
• the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in those projections, or our failure to meet those projections;
• announcements by us or our competitors of new services or platform features;
• the public’s reaction to our press releases, other public announcements, and filings with the SEC;
• rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;
• actual or anticipated changes in our results of operations or fluctuations in our results of operations;
• actual or anticipated developments in our business, our competitors’ businesses, or the competitive landscape generally;
• litigation involving us, our industry or both, or investigations by regulators into our operations or those of our competitors;
• actual or perceived privacy or security breaches or other incidents;
• developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;
• announced or completed acquisitions of businesses, services, or technologies by us or our competitors;
• announced or completed strategic transactions by us or our competitors;
• new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business;
• changes in accounting standards, policies, guidelines, interpretations, or principles;
• any significant change in our management;
• failure to continue to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”);
• general economic conditions and slow or negative growth of our markets; and
• other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism, natural disasters, public health concerns or epidemics and ongoing geopolitical conflicts and wars.
In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. This litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.
We currently qualify as an “emerging growth company” and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make our Class A common stock less attractive to investors.
We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act, and have the option to utilize certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We may take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an emerging growth company. We expect that we will remain an emerging growth company until December 31, 2026.
Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can also delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We intend to use this extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates for public and private companies until the earlier of the date we (i) are no longer an emerging growth company or (ii) affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the extended transition period provided in the JOBS Act. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates. While we have not made such an irrevocable election, we have not delayed the adoption of any applicable accounting standards. Further, we may take advantage of some of the other reduced regulatory and reporting requirements that will be available to us so long as we qualify as an emerging growth company.
Among other things, this means that our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to provide an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting so long as we qualify as an emerging growth company, which may increase the risk that weaknesses or deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting go undetected. Likewise, so long as we qualify as an emerging growth company, we may elect not to provide you with certain information, including certain financial information and certain information regarding compensation of our executive officers, that we would otherwise have been required to provide in filings we make with the SEC, which may make it more difficult for investors and securities analysts to evaluate our company. As a result, investor confidence in our company and the market price of our Class A common stock may be adversely affected. Further, we cannot predict if investors will find our Class A common stock less attractive if we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our Class A common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our Class A common stock and our stock price may be more .
Delaware law and provisions in our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and amended and restated bylaws could make a merger, tender offer or proxy contest difficult, thereby depressing the market price of our Class A common stock.
Our status as a Delaware corporation and the anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay, or prevent a change in control by prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person became an interested stockholder, even if a change of control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition, our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult, including the following:
• any amendments to our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation require the approval of at least a majority of the voting power of the outstanding shares of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock voting as a single class;
• our amended and restated bylaws provide that approval of the holders of at least a majority of the voting power of the outstanding shares of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock voting as a single class is required for stockholders to amend or adopt any provision of our amended and restated bylaws;
• our multi-class common stock structure, which provides Nima Ghamsari with the ability to determine or significantly influence the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if he owns significantly less than a majority of the shares of our outstanding Class A common stock, Class B common stock, and Class C common stock;
• until the first date on which the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represent less than a majority of the total combined voting power of our Class A common stock and our Class B common stock (the “Voting Threshold Date”), our stockholders will only be able to take action by written consent if such action is first recommended or approved by our board of directors, and after the Voting Threshold Date, our stockholders will only be able to take action at a meeting of stockholders and will not be able to take action by written consent for any matter;
• our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation does not provide for cumulative voting;
• vacancies on our board of directors are able to be filled only by our board of directors and not by stockholders;
• a special meeting of our stockholders may only be called by the chairperson of our board of directors, our principal executive officer, our president, or a majority of our board of directors;
• certain litigation against us can only be brought in Delaware;
• our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation authorizes undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established and shares of which may be issued without further action by our stockholders; and
• advance notice procedures apply for stockholders to nominate candidates for election as directors or to bring matters before an annual meeting of stockholders.
These provisions, alone or together, could discourage, delay, or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of our company. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for stockholders to elect directors of their choosing and to cause us to take other corporate actions they desire, any of which, under certain circumstances, could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our Class A common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock.
Our amended and restated bylaws designate a state or federal court located within the State of Delaware as the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to choose the judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers, or other employees to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, or our amended and restated bylaws, or (iv) any other action asserting a claim that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine shall be the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if the Court of Chancery does not have jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware), in all cases subject to the court having jurisdiction over indispensable parties named as defendants.
Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all such Securities Act actions. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. To prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our amended and restated bylaws also provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. Nothing in our amended and restated bylaws precludes stockholders that assert claims under the Exchange Act from bringing such claims in state or federal court, subject to applicable law.
Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to these provisions. These exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum of its choosing for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees. The enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies’ charter documents has been challenged in legal proceedings, and it is possible that a court could find these types of provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable. For example, in December 2018, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware determined that a provision stating that U.S. federal district courts are the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act is not enforceable. Although this decision was reversed by the Delaware Supreme Court in March 2020, courts in other states may still find these provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable. If a court were to find the exclusive forum provisions in our amended and bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an
action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
The holders of our Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to vote on an as-converted to Class A common stock basis and have rights to approve certain actions. Additionally, Haveli may exercise influence over us through their ability to designate a member of our board of directors.
On April 29, 2024, we entered into an Investment Agreement (the “Investment Agreement”) with Haveli Brooks Aggregator L.P. (“Haveli”) and issued 150,000 shares of our Series A Preferred Stock (the “Series A Preferred Stock”) for an aggregate purchase price of $150.0 million. The holders of our Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to vote with the holders of our Class A common stock on all matters submitted for a vote of holders of shares of Class A common stock (voting together with the holders of shares of Class A common stock as a single class) on an as-converted basis.
Pursuant to the Investment Agreement, Haveli has the right to designate one candidate for nomination for election to our board of directors for so long as Haveli and its permitted transferees maintain minimum aggregate holdings of our stock as described in further detail in the Investment Agreement. Notwithstanding the fact that all of our directors are subject to fiduciary duties to us and to applicable law, the interests of the director designated by Haveli may differ from the interests of our securityholders as a whole or of our other directors.
Additionally, the consent of the holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of Series A Preferred Stock is required in order for us to take certain actions, including issuing securities that are senior to, or equal in priority with, the Series A Preferred Stock, increasing the number of shares available for grant under our equity compensation plans or making grants in excess of specified thresholds, incurring debt, redeeming or paying dividends on our common stock, engaging in certain mergers or acquisitions or divestitures, liquidating or dissolving, engaging in transactions with affiliates, incurring certain expenses in excess of our board-approved budget, and terminating the employment of certain of our officers. As a result, the holders of Series A Preferred Stock may in the future have the ability to influence the outcome of certain matters affecting our governance and capitalization.
The issuance of shares of our Series A Preferred Stock reduces the relative voting power of holders of our Class A common stock, and the conversion of those shares into shares of our Class A common stock would dilute the ownership of Class A common stockholders and may adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock .
The holders of our Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to vote, on an as-converted basis, together with holders of our Class A common stock on all matters submitted to a vote of the holders of our Class A common stock, which reduces the relative voting power of the holders of our Class A common stock. In addition, the conversion of our Series A Preferred Stock into Class A common stock or the exercise of the warrant issued to Haveli to purchase up to 11,111,112 shares of Class A common stock, at a purchase price of $4.50 per share of Class A common stock (the “Haveli Warrant”), would dilute the ownership interest of existing holders of our Class A common stock, and any conversion of the Series A Preferred Stock or exercise of the Haveli Warrant would increase the number of shares of our Class A common stock available for public trading, and which may adversely affect prevailing market prices of our Class A common stock.
Our Series A Preferred Stock has rights, preferences and privileges that are not held by, and are preferential to the rights of, our Class A common stockholders, which could adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition.
The holders of our Series A Preferred Stock have the right to receive a payment on account of the distribution of assets on any voluntary or involuntary liquidation, dissolution or winding up of our business before any payment may be made to holders of any other class or series of capital stock.
The holders of our Series A Preferred Stock also have certain redemption rights, including the right to require us to repurchase all or any portion of the Series A Preferred Stock at any time following the fifth anniversary of the original issuance date and a majority of the holders of the Series A Preferred Stock have the right to cause the Company to redeem, in whole, but not in part, the shares of Series A Preferred Stock at specified prices. In addition, upon prior written notice of certain change of control events, unless the holders elect to convert their shares of the Series A Preferred Stock into shares of Class A common stock, the shares of the Series A Preferred Stock will automatically be redeemed by us.
These repurchase obligations could impact our liquidity and reduce the amount of cash flows available for working capital, capital expenditures, growth opportunities, acquisitions, and other general corporate purposes. Our obligations to the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock could also limit our ability to obtain additional financing, which could have an adverse effect on
our results of operation and financial condition. The preferential rights could also result in divergent interests between the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock and our other securityholders.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendation regarding our Class A common stock adversely, the market price and trading volume of our Class A common stock could decline.
The trading market for our common stock depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us, our business, our market, or our competitors. The analysts’ estimates are based upon their own opinions and are often different from our estimates or expectations. If any of the analysts who cover us change their recommendation regarding our Class A common stock adversely, provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our securities would likely decline. If few securities analysts commence coverage of us, or if one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets and demand for our securities could decrease, which could cause the price and trading volume of our Class A common stock to decline.
We do not expect to pay dividends in the foreseeable future.
We have never declared nor paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, and we do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends to holders of our capital stock in the foreseeable future. In addition, our ability to pay cash dividends on our capital stock is likely to be restricted by any current and/or future debt financing arrangement we enter into. Consequently, stockholders must rely on sales of their Class A common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment.
