Ellie Mae went public in 2011 with a business built on mortgages, at a moment when few investors wanted anything to do with them. Housing was still recovering from the crash. Ellie Mae's software sat behind the loan. Its Encompass system let lenders and brokers take in an application, check it, price it and close it. Its network connected them to the appraisers, credit bureaus and investors involved in every loan.

Loans by Fax and Courier

Sig Anderman and Limin Hu started the company in 1997, when a mortgage still traveled by fax and courier. They bet that loan origination could move onto one shared platform. Lenders would pay per loan to use it. Ellie Mae won its first customers among small and midsize lenders. Larger lenders signed on later, as regulation made careful records essential.

From $6 to $11 Billion

Ellie Mae priced its IPO at $6 a share in April 2011, below its planned range. It listed on the NYSE Amex exchange. Then refinancing and new rules drove lenders to its software, and the stock rose many times over. Thoma Bravo took the company private in 2019 for about $3.7 billion. A year later, Intercontinental Exchange bought Ellie Mae for about $11 billion.

Cover: Doorway, Venice, Joseph Pennell. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a doorway (the way into a home).