Intercontinental Exchange to acquire Ellie Mae from Thoma Bravo for $11 bn

By Pavithra R

Intercontinental Exchange, a Fortune 500 company that operates global markets and clearing houses and a provider of mortgage technology, data, and listing services has announced that the firm has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Ellie Mae, a cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry.

Ellie Mae is a portfolio company of Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity investment firm. The transaction values Ellie Mae at approximately $11 bn. The deal follows ICE’s buying a majority stake in MERS in 2016, purchasing the remainder in 2018, and acquiring Simplifile in 2019, and establishing ICE, through its growing ICE Mortgage Services network, as the leading provider of end-to-end electronic workflow solutions in the evolving U.S. residential mortgage industry.

“Twenty years after we founded Intercontinental Exchange to provide a transparent trading platform for the energy industry, and following two decades of providing continued innovation to help customers navigate global markets, we are pleased to announce the acquisition of Ellie Mae, which will help us similarly transform the mortgage marketplace. Our planned acquisition represents a one-of-a-kind opportunity to add an extraordinary enterprise with great leadership to our family. It will also enhance ICE’s growth strategy in mortgage technology, with complementary products and a wide array of customers and stakeholders who will benefit from our core and proven expertise in operating networks and marketplaces,” said Jeffrey C. Sprecher, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange.

Founded in 1997, California based Ellie Mae aims to automate and digitize the trillion-dollar residential mortgage industry. Irs digital lending platform provides technology services to all participants in the mortgage supply chain, including its 3,000 customers and thousands of partners and investors participating in their open network who provide liquidity to the market. Lenders leverage Ellie Mae to manage and facilitate the exchange of data securely across the ecosystem to enable the origination of mortgages while strictly adhering to various local, state, and federal compliance requirements.

Recently, Tavant launched FinDecision platform for Ellie Mae Encompass.

“We are excited to be joining the Intercontinental Exchange family and having the opportunity to work closely with Simplifile and MERS in helping our industry to realize the true digital mortgage. We have been on a journey, as we have long said, ‘to automate everything automatable’ for the mortgage industry, and joining ICE, which has followed a parallel journey in global exchanges, will allow us to further accelerate realizing our vision. We also greatly appreciate, and have significantly benefited from, the operational and strategic support from Thoma Bravo. They were instrumental in helping us achieve this outcome, which is a great one for our customers and the industry in general,” said Jonathan Corr, President, and CEO of Ellie Mae.

Thoma Bravo, since acquiring Ellie Mae has partnered with its leadership team to nearly double revenue while achieving profitability and driving continued innovation in Ellie Mae’s core products. The combination of Ellie Mae’s market-leading solutions with Thoma Bravo’s operational expertise helped the firm redesign its organizational structure by scaling more efficiently, transforming its go-to-market organization to serve its existing customers better, and focusing on organic product innovation to drive long-term, sustainable growth.

Founded in 2000, Intercontinental Exchange is a Fortune 500 company missioned to modernize markets. The company serves customers by operating the exchanges, clearing houses, and information services they rely upon to  trade, invest, and manage risk across global financial and commodity markets.